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A Book of Inestimable Value Made Possible by the Census of 1910 



The 



Progress and Achievement 
of One Hundred Years 

SINCE 

THE SECOND WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 
OR THE WAR OF 1812 

THE MARVELOUS RECORD OF DEVELOPMENT IN WEALTH, 
MANUFACTURING, AGRICULTURE, AND ALL THE ARTS 
AND SCIENCES OF CIVILIZATION. ALSO THE PROGRESS 
IN GOVERNMENT, EDUCATION AND RELIGION .-. .-. .-. 

THUS FORMING 

A HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY IN PEACE AND IN WAR 

SINCE, FROM A WEAK FEDERATION OF STATES WITH A 
POPULATION OF EIGHT MILLIONS, DESPISED BY THE 
NATIONS OF EUROPE, WE HAVE GROWN TO A GREAT 
WORLD POWER WITH A POPULATION OF NINETY MIL- 
LIONS, RESPECTED, HONORED AND FEARED BY THE 
WHOLE WORLD .-. .-. 



By CHARLES MORRIS 

Author of "Decisive Events of American History," "Tlie New Century History of the 
United States," "An Historical Review of Civilization," Etc., Etc. 



WITH HUNDREDS OF PORTRAITS AND CHARACTER SKETCHES 
OF MEN OF ACHIEVEMENT, AND ILLUSTRATIONS OF ALL THE 
GREAT EVENTS OF OUR HISTORY 






Copyright, 191 1, by 
W. E. Scull 



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TABLE OF CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. 

DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION. 

f ". Visits of ihe Northmen to the New World — The Indians and Mound Builders — Christopher Co- 
r lumbus — His Discovery of America — Amerigo Vespucci — John Cabot — Spanish Explorers — Bal- 
boa — His Discovery of the Pacific — Magellan — Ponce de Leon — De Xarvaez — De Soto — Men- 
endez — French Explorers — Yerrazzani — Cartier — Ribault — Laudonniere — Champlain — La Salle 
— English Explorers — Sir Hugh Willoughby — JIartin Frobisher — Sir Humphrey Gilbert — Sir 
Walter Raleigh — The Lost Colony — Dutch Explore/ — Henry Hudson 33 

CHAPTER II. 

i SETTLENIENT OK THE THIRTEEN ORIOINAL 
1 STATES. 

rginia, — Founding of Jamestown — Captain John Smith — Introduction of African Slavery — Indian 
^\'ar3 — Bacon's Rebellion — Forms of Government — Prosperity — Education — New England, — 
I'lymouth — Massachusetts Bay Colony — Union of the Colonies — Keligious Persecution — King 
I'liilip's War — The Witchcraft Delusion — New Hampshire, — The Connecticut Colony, — Tlie 
I A^iin Haven Colony, — Union of the Colonies — Indian Wars — The Charter Oak — Rhode Island, 
— Different Forms of Government — N^ewl'ork, — The Dutch and English Settlers — New Jersey, 
—Pennsylvania,— Delaware, —Maryland, — Mason and Dixon's Line— 7%e Carolinas,— Georgia 47 

CHAPTER III. 

:^HE INTERCOLONIAL WARS AND THE FRENCt) 

AND INDIAN WAR. 

Jng M'illiam's War — Queen Anne's War — King George's War— The French and Indian War- 
En L'land and France Rivals in the Old World av.d tlie New — The Early French Settlements— 
The Disputed Territory— France's Fatal Weakness — Washington's Journey Through the 
Wilderness— The First Fight of the War— The War Wholly American for Two Years- The 
Braddock Massacre — The Great Change Wrought by William Pitt— Fall of Quebec— Moment- 
ous Consequences of the Great English A''ictory — The Growth and Progress of the Colonies 
and their Home Life 75 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE REVOLUTION— THE WAR IN NEW 

ENOLAND. 

pauses of the Revolution— The Stamp Act— The Boston Tea Party— England's Unbearable Meas- 
ures—The First Continental Congress— The Boston Massacre — Lexington and Concord — The 
Scrond Continental Congress — Battle of Bunker Hill— Assumption of Command by Washington 

—British Evacuation of Boston — Disastrous Invasion of Canada 88 

(7) 



8 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER V. 

THE REVOLUTION (CONTINUED). THE WAR IN 
THE IvIIDDlvE STATES AND ON THE SEA. 

TAQl i 

Declaration of Independence — The American Flag — Battle of Long Island — Washington's Retreat 
Through the Jerseys — Trenton and Princeton — In Winter Quarters — Lafayette — Brandywine and 
Gerniantown — At Valley Forge — Burgoyne's Campaign — Fort Schuyler and Bennington — 
Bemis Heights and Stillwater— The Conway Cabal — Aid from France — Battle of Monmouth — 
Molly Pitcher — Failure of French Aid — Massacre at Wyoming — Continental ^^nney- Stony 

Point — ^Treason of Arnold — Paul Jones' Great Victory . . Ip* j»S 

I 

CHAPTER VL 

i 

THE REVOLUTION IN THE SOUTH (CONCLUDED ^). 

Capture of Savannah — British Conquest of Georgia — Fall of Charleston — Bitter Warfare in South 
Carolina — Battle of Camden — Of King's Mountain— Of the Cowpens — Battle of Guilford Court- 
House — Movements of Cornwallis — The Final Campaign — Peace and Independence . . .14 l] 

CHAPTER VII. 
OROANIZATION OE THE UNITED STATES. 

The Method of Government During the Revolution — Impending Anarchy — The State Boundaries — 
State Cessions of Land — Shays' Rebellion — Adoption of the Constitution — Its Leading Fea- 
tures — The Ordinance of 1787 — Formation of Parties — Election of the First President and Vice- 
President 142 

CHAPTER VIII. 

ADNIINISTRATIONS OE V/ASHINOTON, JOHN 
ADAPvlS, AND JEEEERSON— 1789-1809. 

Washington — His Inauguration as First President of the United States — Alexander Hamilton — His 
Success at the Head of the Treasury Department — The Obduracy of Rhode Island — Establish- 
ment of the United States Bank — Passage of d Tariff Bill — Establishment of a Mint — The Plan 
of a Federal Judiciary — Admission of VermoJif, Kentucky, and Tennessee — Benjamin Franklin- 
Troubles with the Western Indians — Their Defeat by General Wayne — Removal of the National 
Capital Provided for — The Whiskey Insurrection — The Course of "Citizen Genet" — Jay's 
Treaty — Re-election of Washington — Resignation of Jefferson and Hamilton — Washington's 
Farewell Address— Establishment of the United States Military Academy at West Point — The 
Presidential Election of 1 796 — John Adams — Prosperity of the Country — Population of the Country 
in 1790— Invention of the Cotton Gin— Troubles with France — War on the Ocean — Washington 
Appointed (yOuimander-in-Chief— Peace Secured — The Alien and Sedition Laws — The Census of 
1800— The Presidential Election of 1800— The Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution— Thomas 
Jefferson — Admission of Ohio — The Indiana Territory — The Purchase of Louisiana — Its Im- 
mense Area — Abolishment of the Slave Trade — War with Tripoli — The Lewis and Clark Ex- 
pedition — Alexander Hamilton Killed in a Duel by Aaron Burr — The First Steamboat on the 
Hudson — The First Steamer to Cross the Atlantic — England's Oppressive Course Toward the 
United States — Outrage by the British Ship Lennder — The Affair of the Leopard and Chesa- 
peake — Passage of the Embargo Act — The Presidential Election of 1808 . . . . . IM 



CONTENTS. 9 

CHAPTER IX. 

ADTvIINISTRATIONS OK IVIADISON, 1S09-1817 
THE WAR OK 1812. 

PAGF 

James Madison — The Embargo and the Non-Intercourse Acts — Revival of the Latter Against Eng- 
land—The Little Belt and the President— Fopu.\iit\ou of the United States in 1810— Battle of 
Tippecanoe — Declaration of War Against England — Comparative Strength of the Two Nations 
on the Ocean — Unpopularity of the War in New England — Preparations Made by the Govern- 
ment — Cowardly Surrender of Detroit — Presidential Election of 1812 — Admission of Louisiana 
and Indiana — New National Bank Chartered — Second Attempt to Invade Canada — Battle of 
Queenstown Heights — Inefficiency of the American Forces in 1812— Brilliant Work of the 
Navy — ^The Constitution and the Guerriire — The Wasp and the Frolic — The United States and 
the Macedonian — The Constitution and the Java — Reorganization and Strengthening of the 
Army-^Operations in the West — Gallant Defense of Fort Stephenson — American Invasion of 
Ohio and Victory of the Thames — Indian Massacre at Fort Mimms — Capture of York (Toronto) 
— Defeat of the Enemy at Saokett's Harbor — Failure of the American Invasion of Canada — The 
Hornet and Peacock — Capture of the Chesapeake — "Don't Give Up the Ship" — Captain 
Decatur Blockaded at New London — Capture of the Argus by the Enemy — Cruise of the Essex 
— The Glorious Victory of Commodore Perry on Lake Erie — Success of the American Arms 
in Canada — Battle of the Chippewa — Of Lundy's Lane — Decisive Defeat of the Enemy's 
Attack on Plattsburg — Punishment of the Creek Indians for the Massacre at Fort Mimms — 
Vigorous Action by the National Government — Burning of Washington by the British — 

Tlie Hartford Convention — .Jackson at New Orleans — War with Algiers ISl 

CHAPTER X. 

ADIVIINISTRATIONS OK JAIVIES IvlONROE AND 
JOHN QUINCY ADAIVIS, 1817-1829. 

James Monroe— The "Era of Good Feeling" — The Seminole War— Vigorous Measures of 
General Jackson — Admission of Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama, Maine, and Missouri — The 
Missouri Compromise— The Slonroe Doctrine— Visit of Laftiyette— Introduction of the Use of 
Gas— Completion of the P]rie Canal— The First ' ' Hard Times ' '—Extinction of the West Indian 
Pirates— Presidential Election of 1824— John Quincy Adams— Prosperity of the Country— In- 
troduction of the Railway Locomotive— Trouble wit'ii be Cherokees in Georgia— Death of 
Adams and Jefferson— Congressional Action on the Tariff— Presidential Election of 1828 . . 206 

CHAPTER XL 

ADMINISTRATIONS OK JACKSON, VAN BIJREN, 
W. H. HARRISON, AND TYLER, 1829-1845. 

^drew Jackson— "To the Victors Belong the Spoils"— The President's Fight with the United 
States Bank— Presidential Election of 1828— Distribution of the Surplus in the United States 
Treasury Among the Various States— The Black Hawk War— The Nullification Excitement— 
The Seminole War— Introduction of the Steam Locomotive— Anthracite Coal,. McCormick's 
Reaper, and Friction Matches— Great Fire in New York— Population of the United States in 
1830 — Admission of Arkansas and Michigan — Abolitionism — France and Portugal Compelled 
to Pay their Debts to the United States— The Specie Circular, John Caldwell Calhoun, Henry. 
Clay, and Daniel Webster— Presidential Election of 1836— Martin Van Buren— The Panic of 
1 837— Rebellion in Canada— Population of the United States in 1 840 — Presidential Election of 1840 
—William Henry Harrison— His Death— John Tyler— His Unpopular Course— The Webster- 
Ashburton Treaty— Civil War in Rhode Island— The Anti-rent War in New York— A Shock- 



10 CONTENTS. 

ing Accident — Admission of Florida — Revolt of Texas Against Mexican Rule — The Alamo — 
8an Jacinto — The Question of the Annexation of Texas — ^The State Admitted — The Cnxfoet 
Mines of Michigan — Presidential Election of 1844 — The Electric Telegraph — Professor Morse — 
His Labors in Bringing the Invention to Perfection 21. '■ 

CHAPTER Xn. 

FAMOUS PRESIDENTIAL CANIPAIGNS PREVIOUS 

TO 1840. 

The Origin of the " Caucus "—The Election of 1792— The First Stormy Election— The Constitution 
Amended — Improvenrent of the Method of Nominating Presidential Candidates — The First 
Presidential Convention — Convention in Baltimore in 1832 — Exciting Scenes — The Presidential 
Campaign of 1820— "Old Hickory" — Andrew Jackson's Popularity — Jackson Nominated — 
"Old Hickory" Defeated— The "Log-Cabin" and " Hard-Cider" Campaign of 1840— "Tippe- 
canoe and Tyler Too " — Peculiar Feature of the Harrison Campaign 239 

CHAPTER Xin. 

ADMINISTRATION OF POLK, 1845-1849. 

James K. VoXk—TlieWar with Mexico— 'Y\\t First Conflict— Battle ofResaca de la Palma — Vigorous 
Action of the United States Government — General Scott's Plan of Campaign — Capture of 
Monterey — An Armistice — Capture of Saltillo — Of Victoria — Of Tarn pico— General Kearny's 
Capture of Santa F^ — Conquest of California — Wonderful March of Colonel Doniphan — Battle 
of Buena Vista — General Scott's March Toward the City of JMexico — Capture of Vera Cruz — 
American Victory at Cerro Gordo — Five American Victories in One Day — Santa Anna — Con- 
quest of Mexico Completed — Terms of the Treaty of Peace— The New Territory Gained — The 
Slavery Dispute— The Wilmot Proviso— " Fifty-Four Forty or Fight" — Adjustment of the 
Oregon Boundary— Admission of Iowa and Wisconsin— The Smithsonian Institute— Discovery 
of Gold in California— The Mormons— The Presidential Election of 1848 261 

CHAPTER XIV. 

ADIVIINISTRATIONS OK TAYLOR, KlLLM[ORE, 
PIERCE, AND BUCHANAN, 1849-1857. 

Zachary Taylor— The ' ' Irrepressible Conflict ' ' in Congress— The Omnibus Bill— Death of President 
Taylor— Millard Fillmore— Death of the Old Leaders and Debut of the New— The Census of 
1850— Surveys for a Railway to the Pacific— Presidential Election of 1852— Franklin Pierce— 
Death of Vice-President King— A Commerical Treaty Made with Japan— Filibustering Ex- 
peditions—The Ostend Manifesto— The "Know Nothing" Party— The Kansas-Nebraska Bill 
and Repeal of the Missouri Compromise ... 269 

CHAPTER XV. 

ADIVIINISTRATION OP LINCOLN, 1861-1865 - 

THE W^AR KOR THE UNION, 1861. 

Abraham Lincoln— Major Anderson's Trying Position— Jefferson Davis— Inauguration of Presi- 
dent Lincoln— Bombardment of Fort Sumter— War Preparations North and South— Attack on 
Union Troops in Baltimore— Situation of the Border States— Unfriendliness of England and 
Prance— Friendship of Russia— The States that Composed the Southern Confederacy— Union 
Disaster at Big Bethel — Success of the Union Campaign in Western Virginia — General George 



CONTENTS. 11 



PAOI 



B. McClellan— First Battle of Bull Run— General McClellan Called to the Command of the 
Arm}' of the Potomac — Union Disaster at Ball's Bluff— Military Operations in Missouri — Battle 
of Wilson's Creek — Defeat of Colonel Mulligan at Lexington, Mo. — Supersedure of Fremont — 
Operations on the Coast— The Trent Affair — Summary of the Year's Operations . . .286 

CHAPTER XVI. 

ADMINISTRATION OK LINCOLN (CONTINUED), 

1861-1865. 

VV^AR FOR THE UNION (CONTINUED), 1862. 

Capture of Forts Henry and Donelson — Change in the Confederate Line of Defense — Capture of 
Island No. 10 — Battle of Pittsburg Landing or Shiloh — Capture of Corinth — Narrow Kscape of 
Louisville — Battle of Perry ville — Battle of Murfreesboro' or Stone River^Battle of Pea Ridge 
— Naval Battle Between the Monitor and Merrimac — Fate of the Two Vessels — Capture of New 
Orleans — The Advance Against Richmond — McClellan's Peninsula Campaign — The First Con- 
federate Invasion of the North — Battle of Aittietarti or Sharpsbxtrg — Disastrous Union Repulse 
at f rederickshiirg — Summary of the Wars Operations — The Confederate Privateers — Tlie 
Emancipation Proclamation — Greenbacks and Bond Issues ....... SO. 

CHAPTER XVII. 

ADMINISTRATION OK LINCOLN (CONTINUED), 

1861-1865. 

WAR KOR THE UNION (CONTINUED). 1863. 

The Military Situation in the West — Siege and Capture of Vicksburg — The Mississippi Opened — 
Battle of Chickamauga — "The Rock of Chickamauga " — The Battle Above the Clouds — Siege of 
Knoxville — General Hooker Appointed to the Command of the Army of the Potomac — His 
Plan of Campaign Against Richmond — Stonewall Jackson's Stampede of the Eleventh Corps — 
Critical Situation of the Union Army — Death of Jackson — Battle of Chancellorsville — Defeat of 
Hooker — The Second Confederate Invasion — Battle of Gettysburg — The Decisive Struggle of the 
War — Lee's Retreat — Subsequent Movements of Lee and Meade — Confederate Privateering — 
Destruction of the Nashville — Failure of the Attacks on Charleston — The Military Raids — 
Stuart's Narrow Escape — Stoneman's Raid — Morgan's Raid in Indiana and Ohio . 333 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

ADMINISTRATION OK LINCOLN (CONCLUDED), 

1861-1865. 

^A^AR KOR THE UNION (CONCLUDED), 1864-1865 

The Work Remaining to be Done — General Grant Placed in Command of all the Union Armies — 
The Grand Campaign — Bank's Disastrous Red River Expedition — How the Union Fleet was 
Saved — Capture of Mobile by Admiral Farragut — The Confederate Cruisers — Destruction of the 
Alabama by the Kearsnrge — Fate of the Other Confederate Cruisers — Destruction of the Albe- 
marle by Lieutenant William B. Cushing — Re-election of President Lincoln — Distress in the 
South and Prosperity in the North — The Union Prisoners in the South — Admission of Nevada — 
The Confederate Raids from Canada — Sherman's Advance to Atlanta — Fall of Atlanta — Hood's 
Vain Attempt to Relieve Georgia — Superb Success of General Thomas — "Marching Through 
Georgia" — Sherman's Christmas Gift ix) President Lincoln — Opening of Grant's Final Cam- 
paign — Battles in the Wilderness — Wounding of General Longstreet and Death of Generals 



12 CONTENTS. 

TAin 

Stuart and Sedgwick — Grant's Flanking Movements Against Lee^A Disastrous Repulse at Cold 

Harbor — Defeat of Sigel and Hunter in the Shenandoah Valley — " Bottling-up " of Butler — 
Explosions of the Petersburg Mine — Early's Raids — His Final Defeat by Sheridan — Grant's 
Campaign — Surrender of Lee — Assassination of President Lincoln — Death of Booth and Pun- 
ishment of the Conspirators — Surrender of Jo Johnston and Collapse of the Southern Con- 
federacy — Capture of JeflFerson Davis — His Release and Death — Statistics of the Civil War — 
A Characteristic Ancedote 367 



CHAPTER XIX. 

ADIVIINISTRATIONS OK JOHNSON ANIj GRANT, 

1865-1S77. 

Andrew Johnson — Reconstruction — Quarrel Between the President and Congress — The Fenians — 
Execution of Maximilian — Admission of Nebraska — Laying of the Atlantic Cable — Purchase 
of Alaska — Impeachment and Acquittal of the President — Carpet-bag Rule in the South — Presi- 
dential Election of 1868 — U. S. Grant — Settlement of the Alnhama Claims — Completion of the 
Overland Railway — The Chicago Fire — Settlement of the Northwestern Boundary — Presidential 
Election of 1872 — The Modoc Troubles — Civil War in Louisiana — Admission of Colorado — 
Panic of 1873 — Notable Deaths — Custer's Massacre — The Centennial — The Presidential Election 
of 1876 the Most Perilous in the History of the Country 407 



CHAPTER XX. 

ADNJINISTRATIONS OK HAYES, GARFIELD, AND 

, ARTHUR, 1877-1885. 

R. B. Hayes — The Telephone — Railway Strikes^Elevated Railroads — War with the Nez Perce 
Indians — Remonetization of Silver — Resumption of Specie Payments — A Strange Fishery Award 
— The Yellow Fever Scourge — Presidential J]lection of 1878 — James A. Garfield — Civil Service 
Reform — Assassination of President Garfield — Chester A. Arthur — The Star Route Frauds — 
The Brooklyn Bridge — The Chinese Question — The Mormons — Alaska Exploration — Tiio 
Yorktcwn Centennial 427 



CHAPTER XXI. 

ADMINISTRATION OK CLEVELAND (KIRST) AND 
OK HARRISON, 18(85-1893. 

Gtrover Cleveland — Completion of the Washington Monument— The Banlmldi Statue — Death of 
General Grant— Death of Vice-President Hendricks— The First Vice-President to Die in Office 
—George Clinton— Elbridge Gerry— William R. King— Henry Wilson— Death of General 
McClellan— Of General Hancock— His Career— The Dispute Between Capital and Labor- 
Arbitration— The Anarchistic Outbreak in Chicago— The Charleston Earthquake— Conquest of 
the Apaches— Presidential Election of 1888- Benjainin Harrison— The Johnstown Disaster- 
Threatened War with Chili— The Indian Uprising of 1890-91— Admission of New States- 
Presidential Election of 1892 -1^ ' 



CONTENTS. 13 



CHAPTER XXII. 

ADIVIINISTRATION OK CLEVELAND (SECOND), 

1893-1897. 

paq: 
Repeal of the Purchase Clause of the Sherman Bill — The World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago 
— The Hawaiian Imbroglio — The Great Railroad Strike of 1894 — Coxey's Commonweal Army 
— Admission of Utah — Haraessing of Niagara — Dispute with England Over Venezuela's Bound- 
ary—Presidential Election of 1896 48'! 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

ADMINISTRATION OK CLEVELAND (SECOND, 
CONCLUDED), 1893-1897. 

Settling the Northwest — ^The Face of the Country Transformed— Clearing Away the Forests and 
its Effects — Tree-planting on the Prairies — Pioneer Life in the Seventies — The Granary of the 
World — The Northwestern Farmer — Transportation and Other Industries— Business Cities and 
Centres — United Public Action and its Influence — The Indian Question — Other Elements of 
Population — Society and General Culture 511 



CHAPTER XXIV. 
ADMINISTRATION OK IVEcKINLEY, 1897-1901. 

W^illiam McKinley — Organization of "Greater New York" — Removal of General Grant's Remains 
to Morningside Park — ^The Klondike Gold Excitement — Spain's 31isrule in Cuba — Preliminary 
Events of the Spanish-American War 527 

CHAPTER XXV. 

ADNIINISTRATION OK IVIcKINLEY (CONTINUED), 

1897-1901. 

THE SKANISH-AIVIERICAN WAR. 

Opening Incidents — Bombardment of Matanzas — Dewey's Wonderful Victory at Manila — Disaster 
to the Winslow at Cardenas Bay — The First American Loss of Life — Bombardment of San 
Juan, Porto Rico — The Elusive Spanish Fleet — Bottled-up in Santiago Harbor — Lieutenant 
Hobson's Daring Exploit— Second Bombardment of Santiago and Arrival of the Army — Gallant 
Work of the Rough Riders and the Regulars — Battles of San Juan and El Caney'— Destruc- 
tion of Cervera's Fleet — General Shafter Reinforced in Front of Santiago — Surrender of the 
City — General Miles in Porto Rico — An Easy Conquest — Conquest of the Philippines — Peace 
Negotiations and Signing of the Protocol — Its Terms — IMembers of the National Peace Com- 
mission — Return of the Troops from Cuba and Porto Rico — The Peace Commission in Paris — 
Conclusion of its Work — Terms of the Treaty— Ratified by the Senate 547 



H (7>.V77;.V7'.< 

CHAPTER XX\'. 
ADPvlINISTRATION OK IVlcKlNLEY (CONTINLIED). 
THE CLOSINO EVENTS OK THE NINETEENTH 

CENTURY. 

.\ffairs in Cuba and Porto Rico — Dewey's Promotion and Return — The Philippine Situation — Aguinaldo's 
Insurrection — The War in Luzon — The Pliilippine Commission — Amnesty Proclaimed — AiFairs in 
China— The Boxer Outbreak — Presidential Nominations in 1900 — Party Platforms — The New- 
Census — The Capture of Aguinaldo — Pan-American Exposition — The Presidential Trans-Conti- 
nental Tour — Other Events of National Importance . • 544 

CHAPTER XXVI. 
AD>s/[INISTRATION OK ROOSEVELT 

Theodore Roosevelt — A Popular President — The Nicaragua Canal — Ths HayPauncefote Treaty — Pan- 
American Congress — The Schley Court of Inquiry — New Expositions — The President's IMessage — 
Proceedings of Congress — Cuba and its Sugar — Visit of Prince Henry — The South Carolina Senators 
— Cabinet Changes — The Danish West Indies — Philippine Affairs — The Louisiana Purchase Expo- 
sition — The Election of 1904 — The Roosevelt Cabinet — Acts of President Roosevelt — Indictment of 
the Trusts — Roosevelt as a Peace Advocate — The San Francisco Disaster — The Panama Canal — 
Reform Legislation — Military Pensions — Conservation of Resources — Expositions — Oklahoma 
Admitted — A Great Naval Voyage— Engineering Exploits — Prohibition — Election of 1908 . 588 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

ADMINISTRATION 0¥^ TAKT. 

William H. Taft— The New Cabinet— Tariff Revision— Alaska Coal and Copper— The Ballinger Contro- 
versy — Withdrawal of Public Lands — The Sugar Trust Case — Roosevelt in Africa and Europe — His 
New Career — A Democratic Triumph — Discovery of the North Pole — The Aeroplane — Benefac- 
tions — The Fisheries Settlement — Admission of Arizona and New Mexico. 






WH 




List of Illustrations. 



PAGE 

Amerigo Vespucci, 33 

Meeting Between the Northmen and Natives, 34 

Sebastian Cabot, 35 

Columbus and the Egg, 37 

An Indian Council of War, 41 

" The Broiling of Fish Over the Fire," . 43 

Indian Village Enclosed with Palisades, . 44 

Sir Walter Raleigh, 45 

Seal of the Virginia Company, .... 47 

Armor Worn by the Pilgrims in 1620, . . 52 

Landing of Myles Standish, 54 

Roger Williams in Banishment, .... 57 

Primitive Mode of Grinding Corn, ... 60 

Friends' Meeting-House, Burlington, N. J., . 64 

Moravian Easter Service, Bethlehem, Pa., . 68 

Colonial Plow— 1706, 71 

Ancient Horseshoes 72 

A Colonial Flax- wheel, 72 

Silk-winding, 73 

A Comfortier, or Chafing Dish, .... 73 

Early Days in New England, 74 

Places of Worship in New York in 1742, . 75 

Attack on Rioters, Springfield, Mass., in 1786, 77 

Young Washington Riding a Colt, ... 79 

Braddock's Defeat, 81 

Martello Tower on the Heights of Abraham, 82 
A Dutch Household as Seen in the Early 

Days in New York, 83 

Memorial Hall, Harvard College, .... 85 

Bible Brought Over in the Mayflower, . . 86 

American Stage-coach of 1795, .... 87 



PAGB 

The Old South Church, Boston, .... 91 

Patrick Henry, 93 

The Monument on Bunker Hill, .... 94 
Nomination of Washington as Commander- 
in-Chief of the Continental Army, ... 96 

Faneuil Hall, Boston, 97 

St. Paul's Church, New York, 101 

Independence Hall, Philadelphia, .... 104 

The Liberty Bell, . 105 

The Statue of Liberty, 107 

An Old New York Mansion, 109 

Washington Crossing the Delaware, . . .113 

" Give Them Watts, Boys," 115 

Washington at Valley Forge, 117 

An Old Colonial House at Germantown, . 120 

Virginia Currency, 1670, 123 

Paul Jones, 125 

The Bon Homme Richard and Serapis, . .126 
British Captain Surrendering Sword, . . .127 

Escape of Benedict Arnold, 129 

Tarleton's Lieutenant and the Farmer, . . 134 

Cornwallis, 137 

A Plantation Gateway, 143 

Senate Chamber, 147 

House of Representatives, 149 

An Old Indian Farm-house, 152 

Mary Ball, the Mother of Washington, . . 153 

George Washington, 154 

Inauguration of Washington, 155 

Alexander Hamilton, 157 

Ben Franklin in His Father's Shop, . . . 159 

(15) 



16 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE 

Franklin's Grave, 160 

Chief Justice John Jay, 163 

Washington's Bedroom in which He Died, . 165 

Mother of Washington Receiving Lafayette, 166 

John Adams, 168 

The Cotton Gin, Invented in 1793, . . .169 

Thomas Jefferson, 171 

Development of Steam Navigation, . . . 177 

Robert Fulton, 178 

James Madison, 182 

The Arts of Peace and the Art of War, . 187 

Mrs. James Madison, 191 

Burning of Washington, 197 

Weathersford and General Jackson, . . . 201 

First Train of Cars in America, .... 205 

James Monroe, 205 

An Indian's Declaration of War, .... 207 

John Quincy Adams, 211 

" Johnny Bull," or No. 1, 213 

Andrew Jackson, 216 

Samuel Houston, 218 

Oseola's Indignation, 221 

Western Railroad in Earlier DayB, . . . 222 

lohn C. Calhoun, 223 

Henry Clay, 224 

Daniel Webster, 225 

Martin Van Buren, 227 

William Henry Harrison, 239 

John Tyler, 231 

Where the First Morse Instrument was Con- 
structed, 235 

Speedwell Iron Works, Morristown, N. J., . 236 

Old Gates at St. Augustine, Florida, . . . 239 

A Typical Virginia Court-House, .... 241 

The White Hou.se at Washington, D. C, . 243 

Old Spanish House, New Orleans, . . . 247 

The Marigny House, New Orleans, . . . 248 

James K. Polk, 251 

Robert E. Lee in the Mexican War, . . . 253 

General Winfield Scott, 257 

Battle of Cerro Gordo, 259 

The Smithsonian Institute, 263 

Gold Washing— The Sluice, 264 

Gold Washing— The Cradle, 265 

Great Salt Lake City, Utah 267 

Zachary Taylor, 269 

Millard Fillmore, 271 



PAex 
Franklin Pierce 273 

Lucretia Mott, 275 

Henry Ward Beecher, 276 

James Buchanan 278 

Lucretia Mott Protecting Dangerfield, . . 279 

Harper's Ferry, 281 

Abraham Lincoln, 285 

From Log-Cabin to the White House, . . 286 

Jefferson Davis, 287 

Fort Moultrie, Charleston, S. C, . . . . 289 

A Skirmisher, 291 

General George B. McClellan, 293 

Statue of McClellan, Philadelphia, Pa., . . 295 

Fortifying Richmond, 297 

Breech-loading Mortar, or Howitzer, . . . 302 

A Railroad Battery, 305 

Sec. Stanton's Opinion about the Merrimac, 309 

John Ericsson, 312 

Libby Prison in 1865, 315 

Libby Prison in 1884, 316 

Moist Weather at the Front 319 

Antietam Bridge, 325 

Model of Catling Gun, 329 

U. S. Military Telegraph Wagon 331 

Admiral Porter 334 

David G. Farragut, 335 

Grant After the Battle of Belmont, . . . 337 

General George H. Thomas 341 

General Thomas J. (" Stonewall ") Jackson, 345 
House in which Stonewall Jackson Died, . 346 

General Robert E. Lee, 349 

General George G. Meade, 351 

Cushing's Last Shot, 354 

Entrance to Gettysburg Cemetry, .... 357 

The Swamp Angel Battery, 363 

Bailey's Dams on the Red River, .... 371 
Monument of Farragut at Washington, . . 373 
Bird's-eye View of Andersonville Prison, . 383 

Death of General Polk, 385 

General William T. Sherman, 389 

General Lee Leading the Texans' Charge, . 393 

General Philip H. Sheridan 395 

Lincoln Entering Richmond, 398 

The Desperate Extremity of the Confederates, 403 

Horace Greeley, 405 

Lincoln's Grave, Springfield, 111., .... 406 
Andrew Johnson, 407 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



ir 



PAGE 

Lo^ cabin Church at Juneau, Alaska, . .411 
Southern Legislature Under Carpet-bag Rule, 413 

Ulysses Simpson Grant, 415 

Mrs. Julia Dent Orant, 415 

The Burning of Chicago, 1S71, .... 417 

Section of Chicago Stock-yards 418 

Monument to General Lee, Richmond, Va., 422 

General (leorge Crook, 423 

Memorial Hall of 1876, 425 

Samuel J. Tilden, 426 

Rutherford B. Hayes, 427 

Grant at Windsor Castle, 431 

Grant in Japan, 433 

The Boy James Garfield and his Mother, . 434 

James A. Garfield, 435 

The Aged Mother of President Garfield, . 436 
Assassination of President tiartield. . . . 437 
Memorial Tal)let to President Garfield. . . 438 

Chester Alan Arthur, 439 

The Brooklyn Bridge, 440 

Scene in Chinatown, San Francisco, . . . 441 

Grover Cleveland, 443 

Washington Monument 445 

Funeral Train of General Grant, .... 448 

City Hall, I'hiladelphia 451 

Old Haymarket Plaza, Chicago, .... 455 
General Crook's Apache Guide, .... 459 

An Indian Warrior, 461 

Benjamin Harrison, ........ 463 

Indian Mother and Infant, 465 

Indian Agency, 468 

Henry Moore Teller, 471 

Model of the U. S. Man-of-War 472 

Machinery Hall,AVorld's Fair Chicago, 1893, 473 



PAGE 

Horticultural Building, World's Fair, 1893, . 474 
Art Palace, World's Fair, Chicago, 1893, . 475 

James G. Blaine, 477 

On the Baltimore and < )hi(i Railway, . . . 479 
A Gold Prospecting Party, British Guinea, . 483 

The Venezuelan Commission, 485 

William Jennings Bryan, 486 

William McKinley, 489 

The Obelisk. Central Park. New York. . . 491 

John Sherman 493 

Thoma.s B. Reed, 495 

Tomb of U. S. Grant, New York, .... 496 
Reveiw of the Navy and Merchant Marine on 
the Hudson, April 27, 1897, .... 497 

Map of Alaska 498 

Ready for the Trail 499 

General Calixto Garcia, 501 

General Maximo Gomez, 503 

Jos6 Marti, 505 

General Antonio Maceo, 506 

The U. S. Battleship Maine and her Ofticers, 507 

Admiral George Dewey, 513 

Camp Scene at Chickamauga, 517 

Richmond P. Hobson 519 

Major-General Fitzhugh Lee, 521 

Rear-Admiral William T. Sampson, . . .522 

Theodore Roosevelt. 523 

Rear-Admiral Winfield S Schley, . . .527 

Rear-Admiral John C. Watson 528 

Major-General William B. Shafter, . . .532 

Major-General Nelson A. Miles 533 

Major-General Josejih Wheeler, .... 535 
Major-General Wesley Merritt, .... 539 
Major-General Elwell S. Otis, 549 




I AM READY FOR ANY SERVICE THAT r CAN GIVE MY COUNTRY" 

Jc t^qS our Governmeflx was about to deciare ■war against France. Congress appointed Washington comrt-ander ''a-'hicr 

of the Am'T-.can Army. The Secretary of War carried 'he commission in person to Mt. Ve'DOQ X'he olu 

bero, sitting on bis horse Id ihc harves* field, accepted n ih'' above patriotic woijs. 



Author's Introduction. 



The annals of the world contain no more impressive example of the birth 
and growth of a nation than may be seen in the case of that which is knowTi 
as the United States of America, and the story of which, from its feeble child- 
hood to its grand maturity, it is the purpose of this work to set forth. Three 
hundred years is a brief interval in the long epoch of human history, 3'et within 
that short period the United States has developed from a handful of hardy men 
and women, thhily scattered along our Atlantic coast, into a vast and mighty 
country, peopled bj' not less than ninety-one millions of human beings, the 
freest, richest, most industrious, and most enterprising of any people upon the 
face of the earth. It began as a dwarf; it has grown into a giant. It was 
despised by the proud nations of Europe ; it has become feared and respected 
by the proudest of these nations. For a long time they have claimed the right 
to settle among themselves the affaire of the world ; they have now to deal with 
the United States in this self-imposed duty. And it is significant of the high 
moral attitude occupied by this countr}', that one of the first enterprises in 
wliich it was asked to join these ancient nations had for its end to do away with 
the horroi-s of war, and substitute for the drawn sword in the settlement of 
national disputes an international court of arbitration, the scope of which has 
been greatly extended by the highly important arbitration treaty concluded 
in 1911 with Great Britain. 

This is but one of the lessons to be drawn from the history of the great 
republic of the West. It has long been claimed that this historj^ lacks interest, 
that it is devoid of the romance which we find in that of the Eastern world, has 
nothuig in it of the striking and dramatic, and is too yomig and new to be 
worth men's attention when compared with, that of the ancient nations, which 
has come down from the mists of prehistoric time. Yet we think that those 
who read the following pages will not be ready to admit this claim. They will 
fuid m the historj' of the United States an abundance of the elements of 
romance. It has, besides, the merit of being a complete and fully rounded 
history. We can trace it from its birth, and put upon record the entire 
stoiy of the evolution of a nation, a fact which it would be difficult to 
affirm of any of the older nations of the world. 

If we go back to the origin of our countiy, it is to find it made up of a 

singular mixture of the best people of Europe. The word best is used here in 

a special sense. The settlers in this country were not the rich and titled. Thej^ 

came not from that proud nobilitv which claims to possess bluer blood than the 
m ' (21) 



22 AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION. 

common herd, but from the plam people of Europe, from the workers, not the 
idlers, and this rare distinction they have kept up until the present day. But 
of this class of the world's workers, they Avere the best and noblest. They 
were men who thought for themselves, and refused to be boimd in the trammels 
of a State religion ; men who were ready to dare the perils of the sea and the 
hardships of a barren shore for the blessings of hberty and free-thought ; men 
of sturdy thrift, unflinching energ}', daring enterprise, the true stuff out of 
which alone a nation like ours could be built. 

Such was the character of the Pilgrims and the Puritans, the hard}- empire- 
builders of New England, of the Quakers of New Jersey- and Penns}'lvania, 
the Catholics of MarA-land, the Huguenots of the South, the Moravians and 
other German Protestants, the sturdy Scotch-Irish, and the others who sought 
this coimtry as a haven of refuge for free-thought. We camiot say the same 
for the Hollanders of New .\msterdam, the Swedes of Delaware, and the 
English of Virginia, so far as their purpose is concerned, >-et they, too, were 
men of enterprise and proved hardy and industrious settlers, and the Cavaliers 
whom the troubles in England drove to ^''irginia showed their good blood b}- 
the prominent part which their descendants played in the winning of our inde- 
pendence and the making of our government. 

While the various peoples named took part in the settlement of the colonies, 
the bulk of the settlers were of English birth, and Anglo-Saxon tlirift and 
energy became the foimdation stones upon which our nation was built. 
Of the others, nearly the whole of them were of Teutonic origm, while the 
Huguenots, whom oppression drove from France, were of the very bone and 
sinew of that despot-ridden land. It ma}' fairl}- be said, then, that the founders 
of our nation came from the cream of the populations of Europe, born of sturd}' 
Teutonic stock, and comprising thrift, energ}-, endurance, love of libert}', and 
freedom of thought to a degree never equaled in the makers of any other nation 
upon the earth. They were of solid oak in mind and frame, and the edifice 
they built had for its foundation the natural rights of man, and for its super- 
structure that spirit of liberty which has ever since throbbed warml}^ in the 
American heart. 

It was well for the colonies that this underlying unity of aim existed, for 
aside from this they were strikingly distinct in character and aspirations. 
Sparsel}' settled, strung at inten^als along the far-extended Atlantic coast, 
silhouetted against a stem background of wilderness and momitain range, their 
sole bond of brotherhood was their common aspiration for liberty, while in all 
other respects the}" were unlike in aims and purposes. The spirit of political 
liberty was strongest in the New England colonies, and these held their own 



AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION. 23 

against even- effort to rob them of their rights with an unflinching boldness 
which is worthy of the highest praise, and which set a noble example for the 
remaining colonists. Xext to them in bold opposition to tyranny were the 
people of the C'arolinas, who sturdih' resisted an effort to make them the 
enslaved subjects of a land-holding nobility. In Pemisylvania and ^lar^'land 
political rights were granted by liigh-mhided proprietors, and in these colonies 
no struggle for self-government was necessary. Only in Virginia and New 
York was autocratic mle established, and in both of these it gradually yielded 
to the steady demand for self-government. 

For the foundmg of a great nation on this western continent the colonial 
diversity of interests needed to be overcome, and tliis was brought about by 
circumstances which forced them to unite in self-defense. These included the 
wars -uith the French of Canada, and more particularly the struggle for freedom 
from the oppressive policy of Great Britain, leading to the Revolutionary War 
and the Declaration of Independence. Success in this great contest could onl>- 
he had by united action, and a Confederation of the States was formed which 
adopted for the new nation the title of " The United States of America." Yet 
this Confederation was in no true sense a Union, ^\^ule it kept the States 
united in the struggle for independence, its weakness was shown when this had 
been gained, and it soon became evident that a stronger union must be formed 
or the colonies would inevitably fall asunder into separate nations, each too 
weak to defend itself agamst ambitious foes. Fear of losing their hard-gained 
independence led to the next great step in American history, the Constitutional 
Convention of 1787 and the adoption of that admirable Constitution which was 
the fii-st of its kind in the histor}- of the world, and with the adoption of which 
the history of this country as a strong and firmly united nation began. 

AVMle the events here briefly outlined were taking place the country was 
growing with phenomenal rapidity. From all parts of northern and western 
Europe, and above all from Great Britam, new settlers were crowding to our 
shores, while the descendants of the original settlers were increasing in numbers, 
so that the 200,000 people supposed to be here in 1700 had increased at the 
time of the first census, taken in 1790, to a population of nearly 4,000,000. 
A people growing at this rate could not be long confined to the narrow 
ocean border of the early settlements. A rich and fertile country lay back, 
extending how far no one knew, and soon there was a movement to the West 
which carried the people o^-er the mountains and into the broad plains bej'ond. 
Here settlements were made, cities founded, and the country between them 
rapidly filled up, the Indians giving way step by step as the vanguard of the 
great march pressed upon them ; here down the Ohio in bullet-proof boats, 



24 AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION. 



there across the mountains on foot or in wagons. A great national road 
was built westward from Cumberland, Maryland, which in time reached the 
Mississippi, and over whose broad and solid surface a steady stream of emigrant 
wagons poured into the great West. At the same time steamboats were 
begimiing to run on the Eastern waters, and soon these were carrying the 
increasing multitude down the Oliio and the Mississippi into the vast Western 
realm. Later came the railroad to complete this phase of our history, and 
provide a means of transportation by whose aid millions could travel with 
ease where of old a bare handful had made their way with peril and hardship. 

While this progress was taking place in the western continent, Europe was 
rent by the Napoleonic wars and the new nation was exposed to a series of 
insults and injuries which were hard for a proud people to ]:)ear. England and 
France alike seemed to look upon the new and weak nation as fair prey. 
Witliin recent years the chance entrance of a squadron of Russian warsliips 
within a British fishing fleet and the firing of a few shots by nervous captains 
who mistook the fishing craft for Japanese torpedo boats led to threats of war 
between Great Britain and Russia, yet in our early liistory for }'ears our 
merchant ships were stopped on the high seas and hundreds of American 
citizens taken from them to serve in British warships, and our people bore the 
repeated insult and injury with what patience they could. Even one of our 
warships was stopped on the high seas when in no condition to fight, fired upon 
and forced to yield a number of its men to the demand of a British captain. 
While France did nothing of this kind, Napoleon enticed into his ports by a 
base trick a large number of American merchant ships and coolly confiscated 
them and their contents, an example of brigandism which it took a Napoleon 
to concoct. 

Those who have blamed the United States for entering into the war of 1812 
have not fairly taken into account the flagitious nature of these actions. On 
one side robbed of goods, on the other robbed of citizens, the provocation to go 
to war with both nations was extreme, in spite of the fact that this country was 
too weak in population and wealth and too feeble in military organization to 
deal with such powerful foes. In the end the insult to her honor outweighed 
the injury to her material interests and war was declared against Great Britain. 

This war, so far as it was fought on land, was hardly of a character to allay 
the American sense of injurv', few victories being gained and the most important 
of these after a treaty of peace had been signed. But on the water the seamen 
of the United States won glory in almost every contest and fairly robbed Eng- 
land of her proud title of " Mistress of the seas." And while the war was of no 
direct benefit to us, it was of great indirect benefit. It showed the powers of 



li 



AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION. 25 

Europe that beyond the Atlantic had arisen a nation that was read,y to fight 
if its honor was assailed, and from that day to this tampering with American 
commerce and the rights of American citizenship has ceased. The young 
giant of the West had plainly shown that it would no longer tamely submit to 
such treatment. 

The end of this first foreign war of the United States formed a vital point 
in its history. Hitherto its progress had been comparatively slow, while it had 
been dealt with by the nations of Europe as a mere pawn in their game of con- 
quest and dominion. From this inferior attitude it quickly rose to a much 
higher level. In future deals for empire it was a power to be respected, and 
while showing no disposition to meddle with or take part in Old World 
affairs it rapidl}' grew into importance as the natural guardian of New 
World interests. Not many years elapsed before tliis was clearly indicated in 
the iMonroe Doctrine, in which the United States definitely warned off all 
other nations from the shores of the Americas, declaring that the era of 
colonization in this country was at an end and that no land-seeking invasion 
would thereafter be permitted on American soil. 

In this great state paper the sign " Keep off" was planted by the United 
States on the American shores, and with one exception its mandate has been 
obeyed. As for that exception, it added greath^ to the strength of the com- 
mand. While the great republic was plmiged in the deptlis of a fraternal con- 
test, fighting desperately for the existence of the Union, Louis Napoleon of 
France took ad^'antage of the opportunity to invade Mexico, convert that 
country from a republic into an empire, and put a puppet emperor of his own 
choice on its throne, supporting him with French bayonets. 

It was a perilous experiment he was making. The American civil war 
at an end, the standard of the Monroe Doctrine was at once raised, a 
peremptory order for the French usurper to withdraw his troops being sent 
across the Atlantic, while along the Rio Grande an army of American veterans 
was gathered, under the leadership of the impetuous Sheridan, read}' to enforce 
the order if it should not be obeyed. It was a bitter pill for the haughty 
Napoleon III to swallow, and he hesitated till it was made ver}' plain that 
hesitation would serve no longer. To save his army from the disgrace of 
being driven out, as they assuredly would if he had continued to delay, they 
were withdrawn, and the ^lonroe Doctrine was fully vindicated. It exists 
still, respected b}- all the powers of Europe, which are well aware from tliis one 
example that the United States will keep to the limit its pledged word as the 
guardian of the weaker nations of America. 

The United States has had two other foreign wars, those with 



26 AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION. 

Mexico and Spain, of minor importance from a military point of view 
but of great importance in their results. In addition it has had a 
great internal conflict, the stupendous Civil War which threatened the very 
foundation stones of our republic. The Constitution of 1787 did not succeed 
in forming a perfect Union between the States. ^\n element of dissension was 
left, a " rift within the lute," then seemingly small and unimportant, but 
destined to grow to dangerous proportions. This was the slavery question, 
disposed of in the Constitution by a compromise, which, like every com- 
promise with evil, failed in its purpose. The question continued to exist. 
It grew threatening, portentous, and finally overshadowed the whole poUtical 
horizon. Every effort to settle it peacefully only added to the strain; the 
union between the States weakened as this mighty hammer of discord struck 
doAvn their combining links; finally the bonds yielded, the slavery question 
thrust itself like a great wedge between, and a mighty struggle began to decide 
whether the Union should stand or fall. With the events of this struggle we 
are not here concerned. They are told at length in their special place. All 
that we shall here say is this : While the war was fought for the preservation 
of the Union, it was clearly perceived that this union could never be stable 
while the disorganizing element remained, and the war led inevitably to the 
abolition of slavery, the apple of discord wliich had been throwii between the 
States. The greatness of the result was adequate to the greatness of the con- 
flict. With the end of the Civil War, for the first time in their history, an 
actual and stable union was established between the States. 

Such has been the record of this country in war. Its record in peace has 
been marked by as steady a career of success and with results stupendous 
beyond any others in human history. A brief review of this peaceful develop- 
ment is here in place as introductory to its extended survey in the following 
pages. 

When white men fii-st set foot on American shores the}' found two great 
difficulties to contend with : a vast region covered with primeval forests and in 
the hand of iDrimitive nature, and a preceding population of warlike savages, 
ready to contest their right to the soil at every inch. The progress of the 
colonists was like sapping the defensive works of a might}' fortress. Axe and 
rifle in hand, they at once attacked the forest and the hostile tribes, and made 
their way step by step against both. They had also the restrictive policy of 
the British government to contend against, by wliich any progress in manu- 
facture and commerce was forbidden and agriculture made the chief business 
of the colonists. 

Against all these hostile conditions the new people threw themselves with 



AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION. 27 

unflinching courage and energy. Increasing slowly in numbers and expanding 
the borders of their settlements, the forest went down before them, fertile 
fields taking the place of woodland giants. The savage natives similarly went 
back, unalile to -ndthstand the swelling wave of wliite expansion. The British 
restrictions were defied and largely ignored. It need hardly be said that the 
restless and active spirit of the colonists chafed under these restrictions, and 
that the attempt to clip the expanding wings of the American eagle had as 
much to do with bringing on the war of the Revolution as had Great Britain's 
futile efforts at taxation. The genius of a great people cannot thus be cribbed 
and confined, and American enterprise was bound to find a wa}- or carve itself 
a way through the barriers raised by British avarice and tjTanny. 

It was after the Revolution that the progress of tliis coimtry first fairly 
began. The fetters which bound its hands thrown off, it entered upon a career 
of prosperity which broadened with the years, and extended until not only the 
whole continent but the whole world felt its influence and was embraced by its 
results. Manufacture, no longer held in check, sprang up and spread with 
marvelous rapidity. Commerce, now gaining access to all seas and all lands, 
expanded with equal speed. Enterprise everywhere made itself manifest, and 
invention began its long and wonderful career. 

Before this date the wave of population had rolled westward until it cov- 
ered the region between the Atlantic and the Appalacliian mountain barrier 
and had begun to make its way thi-ough the passes of this into the great valley 
be^'ond. The struggle for the possession of this magnificent valley was the 
inciting cause of the French and Indian War, though it widened from a struggle 
for the ownership of the Ohio region into a great contest as to which nation 
should be dominant on this continent. For years the contending forces swayed 
backward and forward over the contested area, until at length victory perched 
on the British standard and France was forced to j'ield — not only the original 
area of dispute, but its whole domain in North America, leaving to the British 
colonists the immense northern section of the continent. 

Into tliis broad domain population begun to pour with rapidity after the 
two wars mentioned, the one with France that made the British colonists 
dominant and the one with England that converted the colonies into a free 
and united nation. They were now in position to say, with the poet : 

" No pent-up Utica contracts our powers. 
But the whole boundless continent is ours," 

and proceed freely to take possession of their heritage. The Indian tribes 
could not withstand the advancing flood of population. Everywhere they 



28 AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION. 

were forced backward, while the current of white settlers spread over their old 
abiding places and swept them backward towards the western sea. 

The growth of population in this countr}- is sho-\\Ti strildngly in the 
remarkable development of its cities. In 1790 the three largest cities were not 
larger than man}' of our minor cities to-day. Philadelphia had forty-two 
thousand population, Xew York thirty-three thousand, and Boston eighteen 
thousand. Charleston and Baltimore were still smaller, and Savannah was 
quite small. There were only five cities with over ten thousand population. 
Of inland towns, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with something over six thousand 
population, was the largest. In 1890, one hundred years afterwards. New York 
and Philadelphia had over one million each, and Chicago, a city not sixty years 
old, shared with them this honor. To-day these have gone far beyond the 
million limit. As for cities surpassing those of a century before, they are 
hundreds in number. A similar great growth has taken place in the States. 
From the original tliirteen, hugging closely the Atlantic coast, we now possess 
forty-eight, crossing the continent from ocean to ocean, and have besides a 
vast territorial area. 

The thirteen original States, sparsely peopled, poor and struggling for ex- 
istence, have expanded into a great galaxy of States, rich, powerful, and pros- 
perous, with grand cities, flourisliing riu-al communities, measureless resources, 
and an enterprise which no difficulty can baffle and no hardsliip can check. 
Large as is the population, it is onh' a tithe of that which the country is capable 
of supporting. Abundant as are its food products, they are increasing with an 
abounding rapidity and our territory could support hundreds of millions of 
people and still be much less crowded than are some of the countries of Europe. 

This progress in population could not have taken place had there not been 
an accordant energy and enterprise. Great as was the promise that opened 
before us, this promise could not have been realized without a vast quantity 
of hard work and alert intelligence. Brains were needed behind the work 
of the spade and the hammer, and brains were at hand. In fact, the 
practical genius and inventive facult}^ of the American people have been 
phenomenal and no other country has ever equaled this in its results. Free- 
dom was barely won before our inventors were actively at work. Before the 
Constitution was formed John Fitch was experimenting with his steamboat 
on the Delaware, and Oliver Evans was seeking to move wagons by steam in the 
streets of Pliiladelphia. Not many j-ears elapsed before both were successful, 
and Eli Wliitney with his cotton-gin had set free the leading industry of the 
South and enabled it to begin its remarkable career. 

With the opening of the nineteenth century the development of the indus- 



AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION. 29 

tries and of the inventive faculty of the Americans went on with enhanced 
rapidity. The century was but a few years old when Fulton, with his 
improved steamboat, solved the question of inland water transportation. 
By the end of the fu-st quarter of the century tliis was solved in another 
way b}' the completion of the Erie Canal, the longest and for man}' years 
the most valuable of artificial waterways. The railroad locomotive, though 
invented in England, was prefigured when Oliver Evans' steam road-wagon 
ran sturdily through the streets of Philadelphia. To the same inventor we 
owe another triumph of American genius, the grain elevator, wliich the 
development of agriculture has rendered of incomparable value. The railroad, 
though not native here, has had here its greatest development, and with its 
more than two hundred and forty thousand miles of length has no rival in 
any country upon the earth. To it may be added the Morse system of 
telegraphy, the telephone and phonograph, the electric light and electric 
motor, and all that wonderful series of inventions in electrical science which 
has been due to American genius. 

We cannot begin to name the multitude of inventions in the mechanical 
industries wliich have raised manufacture from an art to a science and filled 
the world with the multitude of its products. It will suffice to name among 
them the steam hammer, the sewing machine, the cylinder printing-press, the 
type-setting machine, the iiibber \ailcanizer, and the iimumerable improve- 
ments in steam engines and labor-sa\ang apparatus of all kinds. These manu- 
facturing expedients have been equaled in number and importance by those 
appUed to agriculture, including machines for plowing, reaping, sowing the seed, 
threshing the grain, cutting the grass, and a hundred other valuable processes, 
which have fairly revolutionized the art of tilling the earth, and enabled our 
farmers to feed not onl}- our own population but to send millions of bushels of 
grain annually abroad. 

In truth, we have entered here upon an interminable field, so full of 
triumphs of invention and ingenuity, and so stupendous in its results, as to 
form one of the chief marvels of this wonderful century, and to place our 
nation, in the field of human mdustry and mechanical achievement, foremost 
among the nations of the world. Its triumphs have not been confined to 
manufacture and agriculture; it has been as active in commerce, and now 
stands first in the bulk of its exports and imports. In ever}- other direction of 
industr}' it has been as active, as in fisheries, in forestiy, in great works of 
engineering, in vast mining operations; and from the seas, the earth, the 
mountain sides, our laborers are wresting armually from nature a stupendous 
return in wealth. 



30 AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION. 

Fortunately for the people of the United States, the continental realm which 
the}' occupied was fitted to respond nobly to their efforts. Its products 
include those of every zone; hundreds of thousands of square miles of its soil are 
of virgin richness ; its mineral wealth is so great that its precious metals have 
affected the monetary standards of the world, and its vast mineral and agri- 
cultural wealth is as yet only partly developed. Vast as has been the produc- 
tion of gold in California and elsewhere, its aimual output is of less value than 
that of wheat. In wheat, com, and cotton, indeed, the product of this country 
is simply stupendous ; while, in addition to its gold and silver, it is a mighty 
storehouse of coal, iron, copper, lead, petroleum, and many other products of 
nature that are of high value to mankind. 

A people thus enriched b}' nature could not fail to develop industries aside 
from those of agriculture and mining. The arts of manufacture, which had 
been repressed during the colonial period, began a rapid progress when nation- 
ality was once assured and have gone on by leaps and bounds until to-day the 
products are stupendous in quantity and excellent in qualit}' to an extent 
scarcely rivalled elsewhere. The variety of these products is bewildering and 
the utmost activity of the American inventive genius js called upon to meet the 
demands of the manufacturer for labor-saving machinery. Long ago we 
went beyond the home demand and began to supply- the world at large and 
the commerce of the United States has grown in the same measure as its other 
industries. At first content to supply the world abroad with food and 
materials for clothing, the products of our workshops have been gradually- 
added to these, until to-day our exports of manufactured goods exceed 
in value those of foodstuffs and raw material and the United States has 
entered into full competition with the most active of the commercial nations 
of Europe. 

Our progress in the industries has been aided and inspired by an equal 
progress in educational facilities, and the intellectual development of our people 
has kept pace with their material advance. The United States spends more 
money for the education of its youth than any other country in the world, and 
among her institutions the school-house and the college stand most prominent. 
While the lower education has been abundantly attended to, the higher educa- 
tion has been by no means neglected, and ampl}- endowed colleges and univer- 
sities are found in every State and in almost every city of the land. In addition 
to the school-house, libraries are multiplying with rapidity, art galleries and 
museums of science are rising everywhere, temples to music and the drama are 
found in all our cities, the press is turning out books and newspapers with 
almost abnormal energy, and in everything calculated to enhance the intelli- 



AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION. 31 

gence of the people the United States has no superior, if any equal, among the 
nations of the earth. 

It may seem uimecessary to tell the people of the United States the story 
of their growth. The greatness to which this nation has attained is too evident 
to need to be put in words. It has, in fact, been made e\'ident in three great 
and a multitude of smaller exhibitions in which the marvels of American pro- 
gress have been shown, either b}' themselves or in contrast with those of foreign 
lands. The first of these, the Centennial Exposition of 1876, had a double 
effect : it opened our e}'es at once to our triumphs and our deficiencies, to the 
particulars in wliich we excelled and those in wliich we were inferior to foreign 
peoples. In the next great exliibition, that at Chicago in 1893, we had the 
satisfaction to perceive, not only that we had made great progress in our points 
of superiority, but had worked nobly and heartily to overcome our defects, and 
were able to show ourselves the equal of Europe in almost every field of human 
thought and skill. In architecture a vision of beauty was showTi such as the 
world had never before seen, and in the general domain of art the United States 
no longer had need to be ashamed of what it had to show. A third exhibition, 
that at St. Louis in 1904, was similarly great in scope and significant in char- 
acter. In extent it surpassed any that had ever gone before, while as an object 
lesson of the progress of this country and the world since the exhibitions 
named its value was of the highest grade. 

We have so far dealt in this retrospect with the material and intellectual 
development of the United States. Let us now say something regarding its 
political history. It is little more than three hundred }'ears since there was 
planted at Jamestown, Virginia, the first seeds of this great nation, and little 
less than three centuries since the second planting was made at Plymouth, New 
England. The period seems small for the growth of so mighty a tree, one \vith 
branches spreading over so -wdde an expanse that the birds of passage of all the 
world have flown over-sea to take shelter beneath its leafy branches. 

It is not only material comfort they come to find, but liberty, the full right 
of man to govern himself. It is a land without legal distinction of class or 
privilege they seek. The right to govern themselves was the first claim 
demanded and gained b}- the settlers at Jamestown and this has been umdeld- 
ingly maintained. In New England it was taken as a natural right, without 
being asked for. In every colony the same political privilege was gamed, that 
of making their own laws and lajdng their own taxes. When the British parlia- 
ment tried to rob them of the latter right the)^ broke into rebellion and gained 
national liberty. Since then, while the great Powers of Europe have claimed 
as their special privilege the controlling of the affairs of the world, the United 



32 AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION. 

States long remained isolated, so far as political interests were concerned. 
While the sails of its merchant ships whitened every sea and its commerce 
extended to all lands, its political acti\'ities were confined to the American con- 
tinent, and though occupying the attitude of guardian of American nationality, 
it troubled itself little with the political affairs of the rest of the world. 

This attitude no longer exists. The wanning of Porto Rico and the Phil- 
ippine Islands by the war with Spain and the Hawaiian Islands by peaceful 
annexation, and the international enterprise of constructing the Panama Canal, 
have given it interests far [beyond its old boundaries, and the nations of 
Europe have been brought to regard this country as a power to be dealt with 
in their efforts to settle the destinies of the world. 

As we step out from the nineteenth century, in which we grew to be the 
dominant power in the Western Hemisphere, and begin our career in the 
twentieth century, it is to behold a broad vista of duties and responsibilities 
stretching and expanding before us. During our past career we have main- 
tained a policy of political isolation in all questions not affecting our own hemi- 
sphere. We now find ourselves forced to take part in the medley of world 
politics, especially those affecting the great Asiatic continent and the islands of 
the Pacific. We are well prepared for this new and great task. We are strong 
enough, enterprising enough, unselfish enough for the duties before us; and 
whatever may be our record, it is not likely to be one of injustice and oppres- 
sion or of forgetfulness of the responsibilities of the strong and the rights of man. 

CHARLES MORRIS. 




CHAPTER I. 
DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION 

The Visits of the Northmen to the New World— The Indians and Mound Builders— Christopher Co- 
lumbus — His Discovery of America — Amerigo Vespucci — John Cabot — Spanish Explorers — Balboa 
— His Discovery of the Pacific — Magellan — Ponce de Leon — De Narvaez— De Soto — Menendez — 
French Explorers — Verrazzani — Cartier — Ribault — Laudonniere — Champlain — La Salle — English 
Exphrsrs — Sir Hugh Willoughby— Martin Frobisher— Sir Humphrey (Jilbert— Sir Walter Raleigh— 
The Lost Colony — Dutch Explorer — Henry Hudson. 

THE NORTHMEN. 

It has been established beyond question that the 
first white visitors to the New World were Northmen, as 
the inhabitants of Norway and Sweden were called. They 
were bold and hardy sailors, who ventured further out 
upon the unknown sea than any other people. It was 
about the year 1000 that Biorn, who was driven far 
from his course by a tempest, sighted the northern part 
of the continent. Other adventurers followed him and 
AMEHiao vEspTTcci. planted a few settlements, which, however, lasted but a 
few years. Snorri, son of one of these settlers, was the first child born of 
European parents on this side of the Atlantic. Soon all traces of these early 
discoverers vanished, and the New World lay slumbering in loneliness for 
nearly five hundred years. 

THE MOXJND BUILDERS. 

Nevertheless, the country was peopled with savages, who lived by hunting 
and fishing and were scattered over the vast area from the Pacific to the Atlan- 
tic and from the Arctic zone to the southernmost point of South America. No 
one knows where these jjeople came from ; but it is probable that at a remote 
period they crossed Bering Strait, from Asia, which was the birthiilace of man, 
and gradually spread over the continents to the south. There are found scat- 
tered over many parts of our country immense mounds of earth, which were the 
work of the Mound Builders. These people were long believed to have been a 
race that preceded the Indians, and were distinct from them, but the best author- 
ities now agree that they were the Indians themselves, who constructed these 
enormous burial-j^laces and were engaged in the work as late as the fifteenth 

3 (33) 



34 



DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION. 



ceutury. It is strange that tliey attained a fair degree of civilization. Thev 
builded cities, wove cotton, labored in the fields, worked gold, silver, and copper, 
and formed regular governments, only to give way in time to the barbarism of 
their descendants, who, though a contrary imjiression prevails, are more numerous 
to-day than at the time of the discovery of America. 



DISCOVERY OF AMERICA BY COLUMBUS. 

The real discoverer of America was Christopher Columbus, an Italian, bor: 




MEETING BETWEEN THE NOBTHMEN AND NATIVES. 

in Genoa, about 1435. He was trained to the sea from early boyhood, and 
formed the belief, which nothing could shake, that the earth was round, and that 
by sailing westward a navigator would reach the coast of eastern Asia. The 
mistake of Columbus was in supposing the earth much smaller than it is, and of 
never suspecting that a continent lay between his home and Asia. 

He was too poor to fit out an expedition himself, and the kings and rulers 
to whom he applied for help laughed him to scorn. He persevered for years, 
and finally King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain were won over to his 



AMERIGO VESPUCCI. 35 

piews. They and some wealthy friends of Columbus furnished the needed funds, 
and on August 3, 1492, he sailed from Palos, Spain, in command of three small 
vessels, the Santa 3Iaria, the Pinta, and the Nina. 

As the voyage progressed, the sailors became terrified and several times were 
on the point of mutiny ; but Columbus by threats and promises held them to 
their work, and on Friday, October 12, 1492, land was sighted. He was rowed 
ashore and took possession of the new country in the name of Ferdinand and 
Isabella. While it is not known with certainty where he landed, it was prob- 
ably Watling Island, one of the Bahamas. He named it San Salvador, and, be- 
lieving it to be a part of India, called the natives Indians, by which name the} 
will always be known. He afterward visited Cuba and Haiti, and returned U 
Palos on the 15th of March, 1493. 

Columbus was received with the highest honors, and, as the news of his great 
discovery spread, it caused a profound sensation throughout Europe. He made 
three other voyages, but did not add greatly to his discoveries. He died, neglected 
and in poverty, May 20, 1506, without suspecting the grandeur of his work, 
which marked an era in the history of the vforld. 

OTHER DISCOVERERS. 

Another famous Italian navigator and friend of Co- 
lumbus was Amerigo Vespucci, who, fired by the success 
of the great navigator, made several voyages westward. He 
claimed to have seen South America in May, 1497, which, y- 'M'-fi f 
if true, made him the first man to look upon the American 

. SEBASTIAN CABOT. 

continent. Late investigations tend to show that Vespucci 

was correct in his claim. At any rate, his was the honor of having the country 

named for him. 

John Cabot, also an Italian, but sailing under the flag of England, discov- 
ered the continent of North America, in the spring of 1497. A year later, 
Sebastian, son of John, explored the coast from Nova Scotia as far south as 
Cape Hatteras. It was the work of the elder Cabot that gave England a valid 
claim to the northern continent. 

From what has been stated, it will be seen that Spain, now decrepit and de- 
cayed, was one of the most powerful of all nations four hundred years ago. 
Other leading powers were England, France, and Holland, and all of them soon 
began a scraralale for new lands on the other side of the Atlantic. Spain, hav- 
ing been the first, had a great advantage, and she was wise enough to use all the 
means at her command. We will first trace the explorations made by that 
nation. 

In 1513, Vasco Nunez de Balboa, a lawless rogue, hid himself in a cask on 




36 



DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION. 




board of a vessel in order to escape his creditors, and was not discovered by the 
angry captain until so far from land that he could not be taken back again. 
As it turned out, this was a fortunate thing for the captain and ci-ew, for Balboa 
was a good sailor, and when the ship was wrecked on the coast of Darien he led 
the men through many dangers to an Indian village, where they were saved from 
starvation. Balboa had been in the country before and acquired a knowledge 
of it, which now jiroved helpful. 

The story of Spain in America is one long, frightful record of massacre, 
cruelty, greed, and rapine. Ferocious by nature, her explorers had not sufficient 
sense to see that it was to their interest to treat the Indians justly. These people, 
although armed only wiin ,juws and arrows, atwhichthe Spaniards laughed, still 
outnumbered them a thousandfold and could crush them by the simple force of 

numbers. Besides, they were always provided with 
food, which they were eager to give to their pale-faced 
brothers, who were often unable to obtain it, but 
whose vicious nature would not j^ermitthem to be 
^^^^S^2l\ 1 ''?^'!i}^ ' manly and just. 

^^^^h^S'lM\:'fj/ Moreover, the Spaniards were crazy after gold, 

which they believed existed in many places in pro- 
digious quantities. The sight of the yellow orna- 
ments worn by the natives fired their cupidity, and 
they inquired eagerly in the sign language where the 
precious metal could be found. One of the Indians 
replied that six days' travel westward would bi-ing 
them to the shores of a great sea, where gold was as 
plentiful as the pebbles on the beach. 

CARAVELS OF CHEISTO- 
PHEK COLUMBUS. 

^ ^"^t DISCOVERY OF THE PACIFIC. 

(After an engraving published in 1584.) 

This information, as may be believed, set the 
Spaniards wild, and, engaging a number of the natives as guides, they j^lunged 
into the hot, steaming forests, and pressed on until one day they came to the base 
of a mountain, from the top of which the guides said the great sea could be seen. 
Balboa made his men stay where they were while he climbed to the crest of the 
mountain alone. This was on the 26th of September, 1513, and, as Balboa 
looked off to the westward, his eyes rested upon the Pacific Ocean, the mightiest 
body of water on the globe. 

He had made a grand discovery, and one which led to the conquest of 
Mexico and Peru and the colonization of the western coast of our country. 
Spain sent her armed expeditions thither, and in time they overran the sections 
named, their footprints marked everywhere by fire and blood. Many remains 




FIRST CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 



37 



exist to-day in the Southwest of the early visits of those rapacious adventurers, 
during the first half of the sixteenth century. In Santa Fe, New Mexico, is a 
building made of adobe or sun-dried clay which was built in 1582. 

THE FIEST CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. 

In 1519 Ferdinand Magellan coasted South America to the strait named 
in his honor, and, j^assing through it, entered upon the vast body of water dis- 
covered six years before by Balboa. Magellan gave it the name of Pacific 




COLUMBUS AND THE EGO 



At a dinner the Spanish courtiers, jealous of Columbus, said anyone could discover the Indies. When, at Columbus' request, 
they failed to make an egg stand on its end, he showed them how to do it by flattening the end of it. "Anyone could do that,' 
remarked a courtier. " So anyone can discover the Indies, after I have shown the way." 

Ocean, and, sailing westward, discovered the Philippine Islands, which have 
lately acquired such importance in our history. There Magellan died. Several 
of his ships were lost, but one of them succeeded in reaching Spain after an 
absence of two years. This was the first circumnavigation of the globe and 
demonstrated the grandeur of the discovery made by Columbus. 

One of the companions of Columbus on his second voyage was Ponce de 
Leon. He was well on in years, and became deeply interested in a story told 



38 DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION. 

by the Indians of a wuuderful land to the north of Cuba, v/here there was », 
marvelous spring, which would bring back youth to any who drank from its 
waters. Do Leon set out to hunt for the land and discovered it in Florida on 
Easter Sunday, in 1513. He drank to repletion again and again from the springs 
he found, but without restoring his youth, and he was killed by Indians in 1521, 
while trying to form a settlement on the coast. 

De Narvaez visited Florida, in 1528, in charge of a large expedition, with 
the intention of marching into the interior, but the Spaniards were so brutal to 
the Indians that they fought them step by step, until only four wretched beings 
were left alive. They lived a long time with the natives, but gradually worked 
their way across the continent to California, where they found some of their 
countrymen, who took care of them. 

DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 

One of the best-equipped expeditions ever sent out was that of Hernando de 
Soto, which lauded at Tamj^a Bay in May, 1539. Although the intention was 
to penetrate far into the interior, the Spaniards had no sooner set foot on land 
than they began their outrages against the Indians, who, as in the case of De 
Narvaez, turned upon them and slew large numbers. The exploi-ers, however, 
pushed on and passed over a large section of country, though the ^irecise course 
taken is not known. In the summer of 1541 they crossed the present State of 
Mississippi and thus discovered the Father of Waters. Three years wei-e spent 
in wandering through the South, during which one-third of the number were 
killed or died and all the property destroyed. Losing heart at last, De Soto 
turned about, in May, 1542, and started for the sea with the intention of re- 
turning home. He was worn and weakened from fever, and he expired on the 
21st of the month. Fearful that the news of his death would incite the Indians 
to attack them, his survivors wrapped the body in blankets, weighted it with 
stones, and at midnight rowed stealthily out into the river and let it sink from 
sight. There was something fitting in the fact that the Mississippi should prove 
the last resting-place of its discoverer. 

Pedro Menendez was one of the most execrable miscreants that ever lived. 
He arrived oif the coast of Florida with a large expedition and at the mouth 
of the St. John's saw a number of ships flying the flag of France. He furiously 
attacked them and drove them to sea. Then he returned to a fine harbor which 
he had discovered and began the town of St. Augustine. This was in 1565, 
and St. Augustine is, therefore, the oldest settlement within the present limits 
of the United States, excluding those founded in some of our colonial poe- 
sessions. 

Let us now turn attention to the French explorations. France in those 




SEARCH rilK TIIK 1-ULMAIN ul' VULIH BV MjMi; HU LEOX. 



40 DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION. 

days was a spirited rival of Spain, and, in 1524, she sent out a fleet of four 
vessels under the command of Verrazzani, who, strange as it may seem, was also 
an Italian. Two months later, with only a single ship remaining, he sighted 
the mainland of America, it is believed near North Carolina, from which point 
he coasted northward along New England. He gave the name of New France 
to all the countries he visited, but his account of his explorations is so vague 
that it is uncertain what lands he saw. Verrazzani, however, seems to have been 
the first navigator who formed a correct idea of the size of the globe. 

In 1534 Jacques Cartier, with two ships, entered the mouth of the St. 
Lawrence. He was so impressed by the desolation of the shores of Newfound- 
land that he declared his belief that it was the land to which God had banished 
Cain. Nevertheless, he took possession of the country in the name of France 
and then returned home. 

Cartier visited the country the following year with a larger expedition and 
sailed up the St. Lawrence to the sites of Quebec and Montreal. He was not 
successful in his attempts to found colonies, but his discovery gave France a title 
to the immense region which she held with a firm grasp for more than a hun- 
dred years. 

Failing to establish colonies in the North, France now directed her efforts 
to the south. The Huguenots suffered so much j^ersecution in the Old World 
that they sought a home in the New. Captain John Ribault, sailing from Havre 
with two shijxs, sighted Florida on the last day of AjDril, 1562. The Indiana 
were friendly and the explorers were charmed with the country. Ribault took 
possession of it in the name of France and gave French names to various places. 
Finally he dropped anchor in the harbor of Port Royal and began founding a 
settlement. 

All were in good spirits and wished to remain, but Ribault sailed for France, 
leaving thirty men behind. After a time they quarreled and rigged up a 
worthless boat with which they set sail for home. All would have perished, 
had they not been picked up by an English vessel, which humanely landed the 
feeblest on the coast of France, while the strong men were taken to England as 
prisoners of war. 

It was the intention of Ribault to return to America, but civil war was 
raging in France, and for a time he was prevented. In April, 1564, three more 
ships set sail to repeat the attempt at colonization. They were under the com- 
mand of Captain Laudonniere, who had been a member of the former expe- 
dition. He began a settlement at what is now known as St. John's Bluff. The 
friendly Indians helped and all promised well, but unfortunately the colonists 
became dissatisfied and rebelled against the strict rule of Laudonniere. Some 
of the men stole two small vessels and set sail for the West Indies on a piratical 



THE FRENCH EXPLORERS. 



41 



expedition. Laut/onniere hurriedly prepared two larger vessels to i:)ursue them. 
When they were ready, the malcontents stole them and followed their comrades. 
Three of the buccaneers were captured by the Spanish, while the pilot of the 
fourth, who had been pressed into service, steered the vessel back to the colony 
before the rogues suspected what he was 



/^■, 



Sij^A*.., 



doing. Laudouniere made them pris- 
oners and hanged the ringleaders. 

At the time when utter ruin im- 
pended, Ribault arrived with seven ships 



f^'i- 



\ 



^ 




AN INDIAN COTTNCIL OP WAK. 



and plenty of supplies. It 



-/ was at this juncture, when 
everything promised well, 
that Menendez, the Spanish 
miscreant, as already stated, appeared with his powerful fleet and attacked the 
French ships. Three were up the river, and the four, being no match for the 
Spaniards, escaped by putting to sea. Menendez landed men and supplies further 



42 DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION. 

south, learning which Kibault prepared to attack them. Before he could do so. a 
violent tempest scattered his ships. By a laborious march through swamps and 
thickets, amid a driving storm, Menendez descended like acyclone upon the unpro- 
tected French and massacred them all, including tlie women and children. Another 
force of French, under solemn promise of protection, surrendered, but they, too, 
were put to death. They were afterwards avenged by an expedition from France. 

Samuel de Champlaiu proved himself one of the greatest of French 
explorers. He left the banks of the St. Lawrence at the beginning of the 
seventeenth century, and discovered the lake which bears his name. His 
numei'ous excellent maps added much to the knowledge of the country. Join- 
ing De Monts, another explorer, he founded the colony of Po^-t Royal in Nova 
Scotia in 1605. This settlement, afterward named Annapolis, was the iirst 
permanent French colony j^lanted in America. Quebec was founded by Cham- 
plain in 1G08. 

The greatest French explorer, however, was Sieur de la Salle, who was 
hardly twenty-three years old when he first visited Canada in 1666. Leading 
an expedition westward, he fell ill while in the country of the Seneca Indians 
and was forced to part with his companions near the head of Lake Ontario. 
When he regained his strength he pressed on to the Ohio River, down which 
he descended to the falls opposite the present city of Louisville. Returning to 
France, he was made a nobleman and appointed governor of the country around 
Fort Frontenac, which he had planted on the shore of Lake Ontario. He 
demolished the fort and erected a much stronger one, built four small vessels, 
and established a thriving trade with the Indians. 

In August, 1679, La Salle launched a vessel at the port of Niagara, with 
which he sailed the length of Lake Erie, across Lakes St. Clair, Huron, and 
Michigan to Green Bay. He then sent back his vessel for supplies and crossed 
the lake in canoes to the mouth of the St. Joseph, where he built a fort. He 
visited the Indian tribes in the neighborhood and made treaties with the 
chiefs. 

On the present site of Peoria, he erected a fort in 1680. Then, sending Father 
Hennepin to explore the country to the northward. La Salle made the entire 
journey of several hundred miles, alone and on foot, to Fort Frontenac, where 
he learned that the vessel he had sent back for supplies was lost. 

With a new party he made his way to the fort planted cto the Illinois 
River, but found it had been broken up and all the white men were gone. 
Thence La Salle went down the Mississipjii to its mouth, where he set up a 
column with the French arms and proclaimed the country the possession of the 
king of France. He was welcomed back to his native land, and when he prO' 
posed to his ruler to conquer the fine mining country in the Southwest, the offer 



ENGLlSh t;ATL0EER8. 



43 



waa promptly accepted aud he was made commandaut. He set out with four 
ships aud about 300 persons. 

But the good fortune that had marked the career of La Salle up to this 
point now set the other way, and disaster and ruin overtook him. His men 
were mostly adventurers and vagabonds, and the oflScer in command of the ships 
was an enemy of the explorer. The two quarreled and the vessels had gone 
scme distance beyond the mouth of the Mississippi before La Salle discovered 
the blunder. He appealed to the captain to return, but he refused and anchored 
off Matagorda Bay. Then the captain decided that it was necessary- to go home 
for supplies, and sailing away he left La Salle with only one small vessel which 
had been presented to him by the king. 

The undaunted explorer erected a fort and began cultivating the soil. The 
Indians, who had not forgotten the cruelty of the Spaniards, were hostile aud 
continually annoyed the settlers, several of 
whom were killed. Disease carried away 
others until only forty were left. Selecting 
a few, La Salle started for the Illinois 
country, but had not gone far when he was 
treacherously shot by one of his men. The- 
Sjianiards wdio had entered the country 
to drive out the French made pi-isoners of 
those that remained. 

THE ENGLISH EXPLORERS. 

Next in order is an account of Cie 
English explorations. Going back to May, (^ 
1553, we find that Sir Hugh AVilloughby 
sailed from London in that month with three shijis. At that time, and for many 
years afterward, the belief was general that by sailing to the northwest a shorter 
route to India could be found, and such was the errand that led the English 
navigator upon his eventful voyage. 

For two years not the slightest news was heard of Sir Hugh Willoughby. 
Then some Russian fishermen, who were in one of the harbors of Lapland, 
observed two ships drifting helplessly in the ice. They rowed out to the wrecks, 
and climbing aboard of one entered the cabin where they came upon an impi-es- 
sive sight. Seated at a table was Sir Hugh Willoughby, with his journal open 
and his pen in hand, as if he had just ceased writing. He had been frozen to 
death months before. Here and there about him were stretched the bodies of 
bis crews, all of whom had succumbed to the awful temperature of the far North. 

The third ship was nowhere in sight, and it was believed that she had been 




m'iu';ii:lI iliaw Jul: iiiailc by John white in 1585. 
By iiermissionot' tlie Brilish Museum.) 



44 



DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION. 



crushed in the ice and sunk, but news eventually arrived that she had succeeded 
in reaching Archangel, whence the crew made their way overland to Moscow. 
A result of this involuntary journey was that it opened a new channel for 
profitable trade. 

Still the ignis fatuus of a shorter route to India tantalized the early navi- 
gators. The belief was general that the coveted route lay north of our conti- 
nent. In 1576 Martin Frobisher started on the vain hunt with three small 
vessels. He bumped helplessly about in the ice, but repeated the effort twice, 
and on one of his voyages entered the strait that bears his name. The region 

visited by him is valueless to the 
world, and his ex|)lorations, there, 
fore, were of no practical benefit to 
anyone. 

Sir Humphrey Gilbert, in 
June, 1583, sailed for America 
with an important expedition 
which gave every promise of suc- 
cess. In his case, however, dis- 
aster overtook him earlier than 
others. He was hardly out of 
sight of land when his most impor- 
tant vessel deserted and went back 
to port. The men were a sorry 
lot, and at Newfoundland he sent 
another ship home with the sick 
and the mutineers. Of the three 
vessels remaining, the lara;est was 
wrecked and all but fifteen drowned. 
Sir Humphrey was on the smallest 
boat on his way home, when one dark night it foundered, carrying down all 
on board. 

The famous Sir Walter Raleigh, a half-brother of Gilbert, and a great 
favorite at the court of Queen Elizabeth, was deeply interested in the plans of 
his relative, and in April, 1584, sent out two well-equipped vessels for the 
purpose of colonization. They brought back a glowing report and Raleiglt 
was knighted by the pleased queen, who gave him the privilege of naming 
the new country. He called it Virginia, in honor of the virgin Queen Eliza- 
beth. 

A large expedition sailed for the new country in the spring of 1585 and a 
fort was built on Roanoke Island. But the Englishmen were as greedy for gold 
IS the Spaniards, and, instead of cultivating the land, they spent their time grop- 




INDIAN VILLAGE ENCLOSED "WITH PALISADES. 

(From the original drawing in the British Museum, made by John 
White in 1585.) 



THE LOST COLONY. 45 

ing for the precious metal. This was suicidal, because the Indians were violently 
hostile, and would not bring forward any food for the invaders. All must have 
perished miserably but for the arrival of Sir Francis Drake, who carried the 
survivors back to England. 

It is worth recording that this stay in America resulted in the Englishmen 
learning the use of tobacco, which they introduced into their own country. Sir 
Walter Kaleigh became a great smoker, and the incident is familiar of his ser- 
vant, who, seeing his master smoking a pipe, was terrified at the belief that he 
was on fire and dashed a mug of ale over him to put out the flames. 

Much more useful knowledge was that gained of maize or Indian corn, the 
potato, antl sassafras. They attracted favorable attention in England, and were 
gradually introduced to other countries in Europe, where the amount raised is 
very large. 

THE LOST COLONY. 

A strange and romantic interest attaches to the colony which Sir Walter 

Raleigh sent out in 1587. It numbered 300 men and 

women and was in charge of John White. While resting 

at Roanoke, the daughter of Governor White, the wife of 

Ananias Dare, had a daughter born to her. She was 

given the name of " Virginia," and was the first child of 

English parentage born within the present limits of the 

United States. 

These settlers were as quarrelsome as many of their 

predecessors and got on ill together. Governor White 

sailed for England for more immigrants and supjjlies, but 

when he reached that country he found the internal troubles ^^^ Walter HALEiofa 

so serious that he was kept away from America for three years. When finally 
he returned to Virginia, he was unable to find a member of the colony. On one 
of the trees was the word " CROATAN " cut in the bark, which seemed to 
indicate that the settlers had removed to a settlement of that name ; but, though 
long and continuous search was made and many of the articles belonging to 
the settlers were recognized, not a person could be discovered. Sir Walter 
Raleigh sent several expeditions with orders to use every effort to clear up the 
mystery, but it was never solved. The story of the " Lost Colony" has led to 
a great deal of investigation and surmise. Two theories have supporters. The 
most probable is that all the settlers were massacred by Indians. Another is that 
they were adopted by the red men and intermarried among them. In support 
of this suiDposition is the fact that a long time afterward many members of the 
adjoining tribes showed unmistakable signs of mixed blood. There were so- 
called Indians with blonde hair, blue eyes, and light complexion — characteristics 
aever seen among those belonging to the genuine American race. 




46 £>ISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION. 

Holland's explorations in America were less important than those of any 
of her rivals. The thrifty Dutchmen were more anxious to secure trade than to 
find new countries, and seemed content to allow others to spend wealth and jire- 
cious lives in penetrating to the interior of the New World and in planting set- 
tlements, which almost invariably succumbed to disaster. 

Early in the seventeenth century a company of English merchants sent out 
a skillful navigator named Henry Hudson to hunt for the elusive northwest pas- 
sage. He took with him only eleven men, one of whom was his son. He made 
a brave effort to succeed, ploughing his way through the frozen regions until he 
passed the 80tli degree of latitude, which was the furthest point then attained by 
man. But, within less than ten degrees of the pole, he was forced by the ice to 
turn back. 

THE DISCOVERY OF THE HUDSON RIVER. 

Hudson's reputation as a skillful navigator led the wealthy corporation 
known as the Dutch East India Company to seek his services. He was placed 
in command of a small vessel called the Half Iloon and ordered to sail to the 
northeast instead of the northwest. He did as directed, but his experience Avas 
similar to his previous one, and, being comj^elled to withdraw, he headed west- 
ward. Sighting Cape Cod, he named it New Holland, unaware that it had al- 
ready been named by Champlain. He continued southward to Chesapeake Bay, 
where he learned that the English had planted a settlement. Turning north- 
ward, he entered Delaware Bay, but was displeased with the shallow water and 
sailed again northward. On September 3, 1609, he dropped anchor ojjposite 
Sandy Hook. 

Hudson now began ascending the magnificent river which bears his name. 
At the end of ten days he had reached a 2)oint opposite the present site of Al- 
bany. The Indians were friendly and curious. Many of them put out in their 
canoes and were made welcome on board the little Dutch vessel, which was a 
source of constant wonderment to them, for they had never seen anything of the 
kind before. 

Descending the stream, Hudson made his way to Dartmouth, England, from 
which point he sent an account of his discovery to Holland. That country lost 
no time in claiming sovereignty over the new territory, the claim being so valid 
that no other nation could legitimately dispute it. 

Hudson's achievement added to his fame, and he was once more sent in search 
of the northwest jiassage. He entered the bay and strait which bear his name, 
and passed a winter in that terrible region. In the following spring his crew 
mutinied, and, placing the navigator, his son, and several members in an open 
boat, set them adrift, and none of them was ever heard of again. 




CHAPTER II. 

SETTLKIVIENT OK THE THIRTEEN ORIGINAL 

STATES. 

Virginia, — Founding of Jamestown — Captain John Smith — Introduction of African Slavery — Indian 
Wars — Bacon's Rebellion — Forms of Government — Prosperity — p]duoation— iVcw England, — Fly- 
mouth — Massachusetts Bay Colony — Union of the Colonies — Religious Persecution — King Philip's 
War— The Witchcraft Delusion— iVeiw Hampshire,— The Connecticut Colony, — The Neio Haven 
Colony,— Umon of the Colonies— Indian Wars— The Charter Oak— Rhode Island, — Different Forms 
of Government — N'ewYork, — The Dutch and English Settlers — New Jersey, — Delaware,— Pennsyl- 
vania, — Maryland, — !Mason and Dixon's Line — Tiie CaroUnas — Georgia. 

At the opening of the seventeenth century there was not a single English 
settlement on this side of the Atlantic. It has been shown that the French 
succeeded in planting colonies in Canada, that of De Monts, in 1605, in Acadia 
(the French name of Nova Scotia), proving successful, while Champlain founded 
Quebec three years later. St. Augustine, Florida, was founded by the Spanish 
in 1565, but it has played an insignificant irdri in our history. England was 
the mother of the colonies, from which the original thirteen States sprang, and 
we are vastly more indebted to her than to all other nations combined. 



THE FIEST ENGLISH SETTLEMENT. 

In the year 1606, when James I. was king of England, he gave a charter 
or patent to a number of gentlemen, which made them the owners of all that 
part of America lying between the thirty-fourth and thirty-eighth degrees of 
north latitude. The men who received this gift associated themselves together 
under the name of the London Company, and in the same year sent out three 
vessels, carrying 105 men, but no women or children. A storm drove them 
out of their course, and, in the month of May, they entered the mouth of a 

(47) 



48 SETTLEMENT OF THE THIRTEEN ORIGINAL STATES. 

broad river, which they named the James in honor of tlieir king. They sailed 
up stream for fifty miles, and, on the 13th of May, 1607, began the settlement of 
Jamestown, which was the first English colony successfully planted in America. 
Everything looked promising, but the trouble was that the men did not 
wish to work, and, instead of cultivating the soil, spent their time in hunting 
for gold which did not exist anywhere near them. They were careless in their 
manner of living and a great many fell ill and died. They must have perished 
before long had they not been wise enough to elect Cajitain John Smith presi- 
dent or ruler of the colony. 

CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH AND HIS ADVENTURES. 

This man is one of the most interesting characters in the early history of our 
country. He was a great boaster, and most of his associates did not like him. 
He had been a wanderer in many parts of the world, and had any number of 
stories to tell of his wonderful adventures. Probably some of those stories were 
true and many fiction. Be that as it may, he was an energetic and brave man, 
and the very one to save the perishing settlers. He made every man work, and 
none wrought liarder than himself. As a consequence matters began to mend at 
once. 

Obeying his orders in London, Captain Smith, when it seemed prudent to 
do so, spent much of his time in exploring the streams that flowed into the 
James. It must not be forgotten that it was still believed in Europe that 
America formed a part of Asia, and that no one needed to jieuetrate far into the 
interior to reach that country. 

On one of these voyages Captain Smith was taken prisoner by the Indians, 
who led him before their chief Powhatan. The chief decided that he must 
be put to death, and, with his hands tied togethei', he was placed on the ground, 
with his head resting on two big stones. Then one of the warriors stepped for- 
ward to dash out his brains with a club. At that moment Pocahontas, the young 
daughter of the chief, ran forward, and, throwing her arms around the head of 
Smith, begged her father to spare his life. The chief consented, and the prisoner 
was set free and returned to Jamestown. Such is the story which Captain Smith 
told after the death of Pocahontas in England, which she had visited with her 
husband, an Englishman named Rolfe, and it can never be known whether the 
incident was true or not. Some years later Smith was so badly injured by the 
explosion of gunpowder that he had to return to England for treatment. There 
he died in 1631. His invaluable services in this country have led historians to 
regard him as the saviour of the Virginia colony. 

The most woeful blow that was struck the American colonies was in August, 
1619, when a Dutch ship sailed up the James and sold twenty negroes, kidnapped 




5° 



THE MARRIAGE OF POOHAHONTAS. 



BACON'S REBELLION. 51 

in Africa, to the colonists as slaves. It was thus that African slavery was intro- 
duced into this country, bringing in its train more sorrow, suffering, desolation, 
and death than pen can describe or imagination conceive. The institution be- 
came legal in all the colonies, and the ships of New England, as well as those 
of old England, were actively engaged for many years in the slave trade. 

WAES WITH THE INDIANS. 

The marriaaie of Pocahontas to one of the settlers made her father a firm 
friend of the whites as long as he lived. At his death, his brother Opechan- 
kano succeeded him. He hated intensely the invaders of the hunting grounds, 
and began plotting to exterminate them. On the 22d of March, 1622, he made 
such a sudden and furious assault upon the plantations, as the farms were called, 
along the James that 400 people were killed in one day. The settlers rallied, 
slew many of the Indians and drove the remainder far back in the woods, but 
by the time this was accomplished half of the 4,000 settlers were dead and the 
eighty plantations were reduced to eight. 

Opechankano was not crushed, and for more than twenty years he busied 
himself in perfecting his plans for a greater and more frightful massacre. It was 
in April, 1G44, that he struck his secotid blow, killing between three and four 
hundred of the settlers. Once more the Virginians renewed the war of extermi- 
nation, and pressed it mercilessly until the Indians sued for peace, gave a large 
tract of land to their conquerors, and retired still furtlier into the wilderness. It 
is worth noting that at the time of this last massacre Opechankano was nearly a 
hundred years old. 

bacon's rebellion. 

Sir William Berkeley was the most bigoted ruler Virginia ever had. In 
one of his messages, he thanked God that there were no free schools or printing 
in his province. He was very tyrannous, and, having friends in the assembly, 
they prevented the election of any new members from 1666 to 1676. The taxes 
became intolerable, and trade fell into the hands of a few individuals. Not only 
that, but the governor disbanded the troops which had gathered for protection 
against the Indians, who renewed their attacks on the exposed plantations. 

This was more than the people could stand, and they rose in rebellion 
under the leadership of Nathaniel Bacon, a popular young planter, who had 
lost several members of his family through the attacks of the Indians. Berkeley 
was cowed for a time, but the arrival of some ships from England enabled him 
to take the field against Bacon. During the civil war, Jamestown was burned 
to the ground and never rebuilt. Bacon pressed his resistance so vigorously 
that his success seemed certain, when unfortunately he fell ill and died. Left 
without a leader, the rebellion crumbled to pieces. The exultant Berkeley pun* 



52 



SETTLEMENT OF THE THIRTEEN ORIGINAL STATES. 



ished the leading rebels without mercy. He hanged twenty-two, and was so 
ferocious that the king lost patience and ordered him to return to England. 
" The old fool ! " he exclaimed ; " he has taken away more lives in that naked 
country than I did for the murder of my father," 

PROSPEEITY OF THE COLONY. 

Colonial Virginia underwent several changes in its form of government. 

A "Great Charter" was 
granted to it in 1613 by the 
London Company. This 
permitted the settlers to 
make their own laws. The 
House of Burgesses, which 
was called together at James- 
town by Governor Yeardley, 
July 30, 1619, was the first 
legislative body that ever 
met in this country. King 
James was dissatisfied with 
the tendency of things, and 
in 1624 he took away the 
charter and granted a new 
one, which allowed the col- 
ony to elect the members of 
the House of Burgesses, 
while the king ajjpointed 
the council and their gov- 
ernor. This made Virginia 
a royal province, which she 
remained until the Revolu- 
tion. 

Virginia became very 
prosjjerous. Immense quan- 
tities of tobacco were raised 
and sent to England and 
Holland, where it became widely popular. Its cultivation was so profitable in 
the colony that for a time little else was cultivated. It was planted even along 
the streets of Jamestown and became the money of the province. Everythino' 
was paid for in so many pounds of tobacco. The population steadily increased, 
and in 1715 was 95,000, which was the same as that of Massachusetts. A half- 




AKMOK WOKN BY THE PILGKIMS IN 1620. 



THE PILGRIMS AT PLYMOUTH. 53 

century later, Virginia was the richest and most important of the thirteen colo- 
nies. The people lived mostly on large plantations, for land was plentiful and 
the Indians gave no further trouble. Most of the inhabitants were members of 
the Church of England, and their assemblies passed severe laws against the 
entrance of people of other religious beliefs into the colony. It required the 
furnace blasts of the Revolution to purify Virginia and some other provinces 
of this spirit of intolerance. 

Education was neglected or confined to the rich who could send their chil- 
dren to England to be educated. Some of the early schools were destroyed by 
Indians, but William and Mary College, founded in 1692, was the second col- 
lege in the United States. It was never a very strong institution. 

THE "old dominion." 

It is worth recording how Virginia received the name of the " Old Do- 
minion." She remained loyal to Charles I. throughout the civil war in England 
which ended in the beheading of the king. She was true also to Charles II. 
when he was a fugitive and declared an outlaw. While in exile, he sent 
Governor Berkeley his commission as Governor of Virginia, and that ruler was 
immensely pleased. The king, to show his appreciation of the loyalty of his 
colony, made public declaration that Virginia added a fifth country to his king- 
dom, making it consist of England, Scotland, France, Ireland, and Virginia, 
and he devised as an addition to the motto of the English coat of arms, '^Eri dat 
Virginia qiiintam" ("Lo! Virginia gives the fifth"). While Cromwell was 
turning things topsy-turvy in England, a great many of the best families among 
the Royalists emigrated to Virginia, where they were received with open arms 
by Governor Berkeley and the owners of the plantations. From this arose the 
name " Old Dominion," which is often applied to Virginia. 

THE PILGRIMS AT PLYMOUTH. 

During the early days of Virginia there was bitter persecution in England 
of those whose religious views differed from the Church of England. This 
cruelty drove many people to other countries, and because of their wanderings 
they were called " Pilgrims." Those who remained members of the English 
church and used their efforts to purify it of what they believed to be loose and 
pernicious doctrines were nicknamed " Puritans." Those who withdrew from 
the membership of the church were termed " Separatists " or " Independents." 
This distinction is often confounded by writers and readers. 

One hundred and two Pilgrims, all Separatists, who had fled to Holland, 
did not like the country, and decided to make their homes in the New World, 
where they could worship God as their consciences dictated. They sailed in 



64 



SETTLEMENT OF THE THIRTEEN ORIGINAL STATES. 



the Mayflower, and, after a long and stormy passage, landed at Plymouth, 
Massachusetts, December 21, 1620, in the midst of a blinding snowstorm. 

The Pilgrims were hardy, industrious, and God-fearing, and were prepared 
to face every kind of danger and suffering without murmur. They wen: 
severely austere in their morals and conduct, and, when writhing in the pangb 
of starvation, maintained their faith unshaken in the wisdom and goodness ol 
their Heavenly Father. All these admirable qualities were needed during the 
awful winter, which was one of the severest ever known in New England, 
They built log-houses, using oiled paper instead of glass for the windows, and in 
the spring were able to buy corn of the Indians, who pitied their sufferings, for 




LANDIWG OF MYLES STANDISH. 



in the space of a few weeks one-half of the Pilgrims had died. At one time 
there were but seven well persons in the colony. Among those who passed 
away was John Carver, the first governor. 

The survivors held their ground with grim heroism, and by-and-by other 
immigrants arrived, and the growth and prosperity, though slow, was certain. 
It had no charter, but was governed by an agreement which bad been drawn up 
and signed in the cabin of the Mayfiower, about the time the bleak coast of 
New England was sighted. For sixty years after the settlement of Plymouth, 
its history was uneventful. It was never very large, but the real work which 



<i 



MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY. 55 

it accomplished was in bringing thousau<ig of other colonists to follow it to New 
England, who were opponents of the Established Church, and who gave to that 
section of our country a distinctive character of its own. 

MYLES STANDISH. 

It is an interesting coincidence that while Virginia had her Captain John 
Smith, Plymouth possessed a character quite similar in the person of Captain 
Myles Standish. He was the military leader of the colony, with a courage that 
was absolutely fearless. He has been described as a very small man, with a 
" long, yellow beard," and a temper as inflammable as gunpowder. Nothing 
would rouse his anger sooner than to hear any slur upon his stature. A big, 
hulking Indian, belonging to a party much larger than Standish's, once looked 
down upon the diminutive Englishman, and, with a curl of his lip, referred to 
him as too small to fight. The next day, in a fight that arose with the chiefs, 
Standish killed the insulting Indian with liis own knife. All readers are famil- 
iar with the beautiful poem of Longfellow, which tells how Standish employed 
John Aklen to woo Priscilla, the " loveliest maid of Plymouth," for him, acd 
he did it with such success that Alden won her for himself. 

MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY. 

The Massachusetts Bay Colony included the part of the present State of 
Massachusetts from the neighborhood of Boston northward. It was founde(i 
by Puritans, who, it will be remembered, had not separated wholly from the 
Church of England, but opposed many of its ceremonies. In the civil war 
with England they sided with the Parliament and were subjected to the same 
persecution as the Separatists. In 1628 a number of wealthy Puritans bought 
the territory from the Council of Plymouth, and, receiving a charter the follow- 
ing year from Charles I., sent small colonies across the Atlantic. Then the 
company itself followed, taking with it the charter and officers, thus gaining a 
colony in America that was wholly independent of England. Salem and some 
other small settlements had previously been made. 

The colony was one of the most important that ever settled in this country. 
Its leaders were not only of the best character, but were wealthy, wise, and far- 
seeing. A large number arrived in 1630, and founded Boston, Cambridge, 
Lynn, and other towns. Although they suffered man/ prrvc^ucns, they were not 
so harsh as those of Plymouth, and the colony prospered. During the ten years 
succeeding 1630 20,000 people settled in Massachusetts, and in 1692 the two 
colonies united under the name of Massachusetts. >. 

• It would seem that since these people had fled to America to escape religious 
persecution, the^ wou^i have been tolerant of the views of tAose among them, 




KING PHILIP S WAR-DEATH Of THE KING, 



RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION. 



57 



but such unhappily was not the case. The most important part of their work 
was the building of churches and the establishment of religious instruction. The 
minister was the most important man in the colony, and no one was allowed to 
vote unless a member of the church. A reproof in church was considered the 
most disgraceful penalty that could be visited upon a wrong-doer. The sermons 
were two, three, and sometimes four hours long, and the business of one of the 
officers was to watch those overcome by drowsiness and wake them up, sometimes 
quite sharply. 

RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION. 

Roger Williams, a Baptist preacher, told the Puritans, as the people came 
generally to be called, that 
they did wrong to take the 
land from the Indians with- 
out paying for it, and that a 
person was answerable to God 
alone for his belief. These 
charges were answered by 
the banishment of Williams 
from the colony. All the 
Baptists were expelled in 
1635. Shortly afterward, 
Anne Hutchinson boldly 
preached the doctrine of 
Antinomianism, which de- 
clares that a man is not 
saved by the help of good 
works, but by divine grace 
alone. In other words, no 
matter how wickedly he lives, 
his salvation is wholly inde- 
pendent of it. She went to 
Rhode Island and afterward 
to New Netherland, where 
she was killed in one of the attacks of the Indians upon the Dutch settlements. 

The Quakers greatly annoyed the New England colonists. They persisted 
in rising in the Puritan meetings and disputing with ministers. Many were 
fined, whipped, imprisoned, and banished, but in the face of warnings they 
returned. As a consequence, four were put to death. Then a reaction set in 
and the persecution ceased. 

The most formidable war in which the early colonies of New England 

N C Pros. 




EOOEK ■WILLIAMS IN BANISHMENT. 



58 SETTLEMENT OF THE THIRTEEN ORIGINAL STATES. 

were involved was with King Piiilip, who was the son of Maesasoit, a firm 
friend of the settlers until his death. Philip was one of the great Indians of 
history. Like many of his people he saw with anger the growth of the white 
men, who in time would drive him and his warriors from their hunting grounds. 
Realizing the magnitude of the work of exterminating all the settlers, he visited 
the different tribes and used every effort to unite them in a war against the 
invaders. He was partly successful, and, with the allies secured, King Philip 
began the war by attacking a party of settlers at Swansea, on Sunday, June 24, 
1675, while they were on their way to church. Several whites were killed, 
when the Indians hurried off to the Connecticut Valley to continue their dread- 
ful work. 

All understood their peril, and flew to arras. Every man carried his musket 
to church, and they were stacked outside the door, while a sentinel paced up 
and down. More than once the long sermon was interrupted by the crack of 
the red men's guns and their wild whoops, as they swarmed out of the woods. 
Springing down from the pulpit, the minister was among the foremost in beat- 
ing the heathen back, and, when quiet was restored, probably he resumed and 
finished his sermon. 

The war was prosecuted furiously on both sides. In the depth of winter, 
when the snow lay several feet on the ground, John Winslow led 1,500 men 
against the Narragansett stronghold, which was in the heart of a great swamp, 
and was one of the most powerful fortifications ever erected by the red men on 
this continent. In the terrible fight, 200 white men and nearly 1,000 Indians 
were killed. Finally, Philip was run down in a swamp near his old home on 
Mount Hope, not far from the present city of Bristol, Rhode Island. While 
stealing out of his hiding-place, he was confronted by a white soldier and a 
friendly Indian. The gun of the former missed fire, whereupon the Indian 
leveled his musket and shot the Wampanoag leader dead. The war ended a 
few months later. During its continuance, six hundred white men were killed 
and many more wounded ; thirteen towns were destroyed and five hundred build- 
ings burned, but the Indian power in southern New England was shattered 
forever. 

THE WITCHCRAFT DELUSIO.V. 

One of the most fearful delusions recorded in history is that of the general 
belief in witchcraft which prevailed in Europe down to the seventeenth cen- 
tury. Its baleful shadow all too soon fell upon New Faigland. Massachusetts 
and Connecticut made laws against witchcraft and hanged a number of persona 
on the charge of being witches. In 1692 the town of Salem went crazy over 
the belief that the diabolical spirits were at work among them. Two little girls, 
who were simpletons that ought to have been spanked and put to bed, declared 



THE CONNECTICUT COLONY. 59 

with bulging eyes that different persons had taken the form of a black cat and 
pinched, scratched, and bitten them. The people, including the great preacher 
Cotton Mather, believed this stuff, and the supposed wizards and witches were 
punished with fearful severity. Suspicion in many cases meant death ; evil men 
disposed of their creditors and enemies by charging them with witchcraft; fami- 
lies were divided and the gentlest and most irreproachable of women suffered 
disgraceful death. Everybody, including ministers and judges, lost their wits. 
The magistrates crowded the jails, until twenty had been put to death and fifty- 
five tortured before the craze subsided. Then it became clear that no one, no 
matter what his station, was safe, and the delusion, which forms one of the black- 
est pages in New England, passed away. 

SETTLEMENT OF MAINE AND NEW HAMPSHIRE. 

New Hampshire was the name of John Mason's share of a territory granted 
to him and Sir Fernando Gorges by the Council of Plymouth iu 1622. This 
grant included all the land between the Merrimac and Kennebec Rivers. The 
first settlemeut was made in 1623, at New and at Little Harbor, near Ports- 
mouth. In 1629 the proprietors divided their grants, the country west of the 
Piscataqua being taken by Mason, who named it New Hampshire, while Gorges, 
who owned the eastern section, called it Maine. 

The settlements were weak iind their growth tardy. In 1641 New Hamp- 
shire placed itself under the protection of Massachueetts, but the king sejiarated 
them in 1679, and made New Hampshire a royal colony. In 1688 it again 
joined Massachusetts, and three years later was set off once more by the king, 
after which it remained a royal colony until the Revolution. 

THE CONNECTICUT COLONY. 

The Connecticut colony included all of the present State of Connecticut, 
excepting a few townships on the shore of Long Island Sound. It came into the 
possession of the Earl of Warwick in 1630, and the following year he transferred 
it to Lords Say, Brooke, and others. The Dutch claimed the territory and erected 
a fort on the Connecticut River to keep out the English. The latter, howe\ ^r, paid 
no attention to them, and a number oi Massachusetts traders settled at Windsor in 
1633. Saybrook, at the mouth of the Connecticut, was settled in 1635. A great 
many emigrants came from ^Massachusetts in 1636, the principal leader being 
Thomas Hooker. They founded Weathersfield, Windsor, and Hartford, and in 
1639 adopted the name of the Connecticut colony and drew up a written consti- 
tution, tlie first ever framed by a body of men for their own government. Other 
settlements were made and Suybrook united with them. 

The most eventful incident in the history of Connecticut was the war with 



60 



SETTLEMENT OF THE THIRTEEN ORIGINAL STATES. 



the Pequot Indians who were a powerful tribe in the eastern part of the State 
They tned to persuade the Narragansetts to join them, but Roger Williams who 
hved among them persuaded Canonicus, their chie.; to refuse. The^ h Pe^rot^ 
committed the fatal mistake of going to war alone. The settlers, fully roused to 

1637 and killed all their enemies, sparing neither women nor children. Th^a 
a leading tribe of Indians were blotted out in one day. 

THE NEW HAVEN COLONY. 

The New Haven colony comprised the townships already referred to as lying 




PKIMITIVE MODE OP GBINDING CORN 



on Long Island Sound. It was settled in 1638 by a company of En<.lish immi- 

Od r'to "" ""''^ff' "^" ^"' j^^^^ '^ '^"^ tJ- ^-'^'^ of the IndTaTs 
Haven rr ^"l^ff ^^^' ^^^^ i" 1639 the group took the name of the New 

rTXifrefffrf \^' ^,^^^«"- '^^' ^ «'^-^-- -^<^ there was much 

prelrre to oin! P "^ '^"/"^"' "^ '^'^ ""''' ''''^'^' The majority 
pe miT^^^^ Connecticut colony, for the other, like Massachusetts, would 

permit no one not a member of church to vote or hold office. 

THE COLONY OF CONNECTICUT. 

What is known in the history of England as the Commonwealth, established 



THE CHARTER OAK. 61 

by Cromwell, came to an end in 1660. Charles II. ascended tlie throne, and 
Winthrop, governor of the Connecticut colony, which had now grown to be the 
stronger of the two, went to England to secure a charter. It was gAnted 
to him in 1662, and covered the territory occupied by both colonies, who were 
permitted to elect their assembly, their governor, and to rule themselves. New 
Haven, after deliberating over the question, reluctantly accepted the charter, and 
in 1665 the two were united under the name of the Colony of Connecticut. 

Everything was going along smoothly, when, in 1687, Governor Andros 
came down with a comjDany of soldiers from Boston and ordered the people to 
surrender their charter. He was acting under the orders of the king, who did 
not fancy the independence with which the colony was conducting matters. 
Andros confronted the assembly, which were called together in Hartford. They 
begged that he Avould not enforce his demands. He consented to listen to their 
arguments, though there was not the slightest probability of it producing any 
effect upon him. 

THE CHARTER OAK. 

The talk continued until dark, when the candles were lighted. Suddenly, 
at a signal, all were blown out. When they were re-lighted, the charter, which 
had been lying on the table in plain sight, was nowhere to be found. Captain 
Wadsworth had slipped out during the interval of darkness and hidden the 
paper in the hollow of an oak. Then he returned and took his place among 
the members, looking the most innocent of all. Andros fumed and raved and 
informed the assembly that their trick would avail them nothing, since their 
charter government was at an end. He went back to Boston, to be turned out 
of office two years later, when the precious charter was brought from its hiding- 
place. 

No effort was spared to preserve the historical " Charter Oak," that had 
thus been made famous. It was supported and propped in every part that 
showed signs of weakness, and held u]^ its head until 1856, when a terrific 
storm brought it to the ground, shattered to fragments, all of which were care- 
fully gathered and preserved by those fortunate enough to obtain tliem. 

The early division of the colonies was long marked by the fact that Hart- 
ford and New Haven served as the two capitals of the State until 1873, when 
Hartford became the sole capital. 

SETTLEMENT OF RHODE ISLAND. 

It has been stated that when Roger Williams was banished from Massa- 
chusetts he took refuge among the Narragansett Indians, who occupied the 
country at the head of Narragansett Bay. Canonicus, the chief, held the good 
man in high esteem, and presented him with a large tract of land, which the 



62 SETTLEMENT OF THE THIRTEEN ORIGINAL STATES. 

devout Williams named " Providence " in remembrance of the manner in which 
he believed God had directed hira thither. Settlers from Massachusetts fol- 
lowefl him, and all were hospitably received and kindly treated. The fullest 
religious liberty was allowed, and even when Anne Hutchinson visited Wil- 
liams, he treated her like a sister. Williams obtained a charter in 1644 from 
the Parliament and it was confirmed in 1654. The new one granted by Charles 
II. in 1663 united all the colonies into one, under the name Rhode Island and 
Providence Plantations. This is still the legal name of the State, which retains 
its two cajjitals, Providence and Newport, the Legislature meeting alternately in 
each. The charter of Charles II. suited the people so well that it remained in 
force until 1842, when Thomas Dorr headed a rebellion, as related hereafter, 
which resulted in the establishment of a new charter. 

The existence of Rhode Island was threatened by the claim of Connecticut 
to all the land on the west to the shore of Narragansett Bay, while Plymouth 
insisted that the land on the east to the shore of the same bay belonged to her. 
Rhode Island stoutly resisted, and succeeded in 1741 and 1752 in fixing her 
boundaries as they are to-day, which make her the smallest State in the Union. 

SETTLEMENT OF NEW YOKK. 

It has been shown that Holland was more anxious to secure trade than 
territory. Soon after the discovery of the Hudson, by Caj^tain Henry Hudson, 
the Dutch traders sent vessels to Manhattan Island, now constituting the city of 
New York, and began bartering with the Indians. In 1621 Holland granted 
the territory from Delaware Bay to the Connecticut River to the Dutch West 
India Company. The name given to the territory was New Netherland, while 
the settlement, which grew in time into the metropolis of America, was called 
New Amsterdam. The whole island was bought from the Indians for sixty 
guilders, equal to about twenty-four dollars, a price which is considerably less 
than would be demanded to-day for the site of Greater New York. 

New Netherland was governed successively by Peter Minuet, Walter Van 
Twiller, AVilliam Kieft, and Peter Stuyvesant, who were sent out by the Dutch 
West India Comimny, and whose rule extended from 1626 to 1664. Of these, 
Stuyvesant was by far the ablest, and he made a strong impression on the social 
and political life of New Netherland. He was severe and stubborn, however, 
and many of the Dutchmen found his rule so onerous that they were rather 
pleased than otherwise, when the English, in 1664, claimed the territory by 
right of discovery and sent out a fleet which compelled Stuyvesant to surrender 
the town. The doughty old governor stamped about New Amsterdam with his 
wooden leg, calling upon his countrynien to rally and drive back the rascals, 
but little or no heed was paid to his appeals. 



WILLIA3I KIDD, THE PIRATE. 68 

Charles II. had granted the territory to his brother the Duke of York, who 
soon after asceuded the throne, thus making the colony, which included that of 
New Jersey, a royal one. The Connecticut peojile liad settled a large part of 
Rhode Island, which they claimed, but the duke was too powerful to be resisted, 
and Long Island became a part of New York, as the city and province were 
named. 

In 1673, while at war with England, Holland sent a fleet which recaptured 
New York, but it was given back to England, upon the signing of a treaty in 
1674. The manner in which New Netherland was settled by the Dutch was 
quite different from that of New England. Wealthy men, termed "patroons," 
were granted immense tracts of land and brought over settlers, whose situation 
was much like that of the serfs of Russia. Traces of the patroon system 
remained long after the Revolution, and, in 1846, caused the "Anti-Rent 
War," which resulted in the death of a number of jjeople. 

The province of New York suffered greatly from misrule. The people 
were not permitted to elect their own assembly until 1683, and two years later, 
when the Duke of York became king, he took away the privilege. William 
and Mary, however, restored it in 1691, and it remained to the Revolution. 

As a proof of the bad governorship of New York, it may be said that there 
is good reason to believe that one of its rulers was interested witti the pirates 
who infested the coast, while another, who refused to sign the death-wan'ant of 
two persons who had committed no serious crime, was made drunk and then 
persuaded to sign the fatal paper. When he became sober, he was horrified to 
find that both had been executed. 

WILLIAM KIDD, THE PIRATE, 

The piracy alluded to became such a scandalous blight that strenuous meas- 
ures were taken to crush it. In 1697 Captain William Kidd, a New York ship- 
master and a brave and skillful navigator, was sent to assist in the work. After 
he had cruised for a while in distant waters, he turned pirate himself. He had 
the effi-ontery to return home three years later, believing his friends would pro- 
tect him ; but, though they would have been willing enough to do so, they dared 
not. He was arrested, tried in England, convicted, and hanged. Piracy was 
finally driven from the American waters in 1720. 

In 1740 New York was thrown into a panic by the report that the negroes 
had formed a plot to burn the town. It is scarcely possible that any such plot 
existed, but before the scare had passed away four whites and eighteen negroes 
were hanged, and, dreadful as it may sound, fourteen negroes were burned at the 
stake. In addition, nearly a hundred were driven out of the colony. 

The fine harbor and noble river emptying into it gave New York such ad- 



64 



SETTLEMENT OF THE THIRTEEN ORIGINAL STATES. 



vantages that, by 1750, it had become one of the most important cities on the 
coast, though its population was less than that of Philadelphia. At the time 
named, its inhabitants numbered about 12,000, which was less than that of Phil- 
adelphia. Thejorovince itself contained 90,000 inhabitants. The chief towns 
were New York, Albany, and Kingston. Brooklyn, which attained vast pro- 
portions within the following century, was merely a ferry station. 

SETTLEMENT OF NEW JERSEY. 

New Jersey, as has been stated, was originally a part of New Netherland. 
As early as 1618, the Dutch erected a trading post at Bergen. All now included 
in the State was granted, in 1664, by the Duke of York to Lord John Berkeley 
and Sir George Carteret. Carteret was once governor of the island of Jersey 
in the English Channel, and gave the name to the new province. In the year 
mentioned, the first English settlement was made at Elizabethtown, now known 

as Elizabeth. 

In 1674, the province was 
divided into East and West 
Jersey, a distinction which is 
preserved to some extent to the 
present day. Berkeley, who 
owned West Jersey, sold it to a 
number of Quakers, some of 
whom settled near Burlington. 
Carteret sold his part to William 
Penn and eleven other Quakers. 
The various changes of owner- 
ship caused much trouble with the 
land titles. In 1702, all the proprietors surrendered their rights to the crown 
and New Jersey became a royal colony. The same governor ruled New York 
and New Jersey, though those in the latter elected their own assembly. A com- 
plete separation from New York took place in 1738, and New Jersey remained 
a royal province until the Revolution. Its location averted all troubles with 
the Indians. Newark, the principal city, was settled in 1666, by emigrants from 
Connecticut. Burlington, founded in 1677, was one of the capitals and Perth 
Amboy the other. 

EARLY SETTLEMENTS ON THE DELAWARE. 

In 1638, a number of Swedes formed the settlement of Christina on the 
Delaware, near Wilmington. They bought the land from the Indians and 
named it New Sweden. A second settlement, that of Chester, was made just be- 
low the site of Philadelphia in 1643, and was the first in the present State of 




THE i'lKST FKIEWDS' MEETING-HOUSE, 
BUKLINGTON, NEW JEKSEY. 




WILLIAM PENN. THE GOOD AND WISE RULER. 



65 




NOTABLE AUDIENCE IN MARYLAND TO HEAR GEORGE FOX. THE FOUNDER OF THE 
6' "SOCIETY OF FRIENDS OR QUAKERS. 



PENNSYLVANIA AND DELAWARE. 67 

Pennsylvania. The fiery Governor Stuyvesant of New Netlierland looked upon 
these attempts as impudent invasions of his territory, and, filled with anger, hur- 
ried down to Delaware and captured both. It was a matter of no moment to the 
thrifty Swedes, who kept on the even tenor of their way and throve under the 
new government as well as under the old. A further account of the settlement 
of Delaware will be given in our history of that of Pennsylvania. 

SETTLEMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA AND DELAWARE. 

The peace-loving Quakers were among those who suffered persecution in 
England for conscience sake. William Penn was the son of Admiral Penn, who 
disliked the Quakers and had been a valiant ofiicei- for the English government. 
When he died, the crown owed him a large sum of money, which William offered 
to liquidate in return for a grant of the land now known as the State of Penn- 
sylvania. The king willingly agreed to this, and the Duke of York, who had 
a strong liking for Penn, added the present State of Delaware to the grant, in 
which, as has been stated, the Swedes had made a number of settlements. 

William Penn was one of the best and wisest rulers that had to do with the 
settlement of our country. The king, more as a piece of pleasantry than other- 
wise, insisted upon naming the province " Pennsylvania," in honor of the pro- 
prietor, much to the good man's dismay. He offered the royal secretary a liberal 
fee to omit the first part of the name from the charter, but it was not done. No 
rule could have been more kindly. Absolute freedom of conscience was permitted ; 
!n all trials by jury of an Indian, one-half of the jury were to be composed of 
Indians, and, although Penn was induced to permit the punishment of death for 
treason and murder, to be provided for in the code, no man was ever executed 
while Penn had anything to do with the province. 

His first act, after his arrival in 1682, was characteristic. He called the 
Indian chiefs together, under a great spreading elm at Shackamaxon, and paid 
them for the land that was already his by royal grant. In addition, he made 
the red men many presents and signed a treaty, which neither party broke for 
sixty years. It has been truly said that this was the only treaty not sworn to 
which was kept inviolate by both parties. 

Penn himself laid out the city of PhiladeljDhia in 1683. A year later, it 
had a population of 7,000, and in three years more its population increased 
faster than that of New York in half a century. Delaware, then called the 
" Three Lower Counties," was given a separate government at the request of the 
people in 1703. They were allowed their own deputy governor, but Pennsyl- 
vania and Delaware continued substantially under one government until the 
Revolution. 

The good ruler met with many misfortunes. In 1692, the province wa*> 



68 



SETTLEMENT OF THE THIRTEEN ORIGINAL STATES. 



taken from him, because of his friendship to James II., but restored soon after- 
ward. In 1699, when he made his second visit, he found the people had in a 
great measure grown away from him, and were unwilling that he should exercise 
his former supervision. While absent, a dishonest steward robbed hira of nearly 
all his property in England ; and, failing in health and mind, he died in 1718. 
His sons became jjroprietors, but the people grew more and more discontented 
with the payment of rents. To end the disputes and quarrels, the State abolished 
the rents during the Revolution, paying the proprietors the sum of |650,000 for 
the extinguishment of their rights. 



PHILADELPHIA. 

Philadelphia was prosper- 
ous from the first. New York 
City did not catch up to it until 
after the year 1810. It was early 
noted, as it has been since, for 
its cleanliness, fine buildings, 
and the attention it gave to 
education. It had a printing 




MORAVIAN EASTER SERVICE, BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA. 

press in 1686, and three years later a public high school. In the year 1749, the 
present University of Pennsylvania was founded as a school, becoming a college 
in 1755, and a university in 1779. Many of the names of streets, such as Wal- 
nut, Chestnut, Pine, Mulberry, and others, were given to it when the city was 
laid out. 

The settlement of the province was confined for a long time to the eastern 
section. No population was more varied. The Scotch and Irish were mainly 
in the central jiortion, the Dutch and Germans in the east and northeast, and 
the English in the southeastern j^art of the colony. There are hundreds of 
people to-day in Pennsylvania, whose ancestors for several generations have been 
born there, who are unable to speak or understand a word of English. 

Maryland is the next colony in order of settlement. The Roman Catuolics 



SETTLEMENT OF MARYLAND. 69 

were among those who suffered persecution in England, and Maryland was 
founded as a place of refuge for them. Among the most prominent of the 
English Catholics was Sir George Calvert, known as Lord Baltimore. His first 
attempt to found a colony was in Newfoundland, but the rigorous climate com- 
pelled him to give it up. He decided that the most favorable place was that 
portion of Virginia lying east of the Potomac. Virginia had its eye already 
upon the section, and was preparing to settle it, when Charles I., without con- 
sulting her, granted the territory to Lord Baltimore. Before he could use the 
patent, he died, and the charter was made to his son, Cecil Calvert, in 1632. He 
named it Maryland in compliment to the queen, Henrietta Maria. 

Leonard Calvert, a brother of Lord Baltimore, began the settlement of 
Maryland at St. Mary's, near the mouth of the Potomac. He took with him 
200 immigrants and made friends with the Indians, whom he treated with 
justice and kindness. Annapolis was founded in 1683 and Baltimore in 1729. 

Despite the wisdom and liberality of Calvert's rule, the colony met with 
much trouble, because of Virginia's claim to the territory occupied by the new- 
comers. William Clayborne of Virginia had established a trading post in 
Maryland and refused to leave, but he was driven out, whereu2:»on he appealed 
to the king, insisting that the Catholics were intruders upon domain to which 
they had no right. The king decided in favor of Lord Baltimore. Clayborne 
however, would not assent, and, returning to Maryland in 1645, he incited a 
rebellion which was pressed so vigorously that Calvert was forced to flee. He 
gathered enough followers to drive Clayborne out in turn. The Catholics then 
established a liberal government and passed the famous " Toleration Act," which 
allowed everybody to worship God as he saw fit. Many persons in the other 
colonies, who were suffering persecution, made their homes in Maryland. 

After a time, the Protestants gained a majority in the assembly and made 
laws which were very oppressive to the Catholics. The strife degenerated into 
civil war, which lasted for a number of years. The proprietor in 1691 was a 
supporter of James II., because of which the new king, William, took away his 
colony and appointed the governors himself The proprietor's rights were 
restored in 1716 to the fourth Lord Baltimore. The Calverts became extinct 
in 1771, and the people of Maryland assumed proprietorship five years later. 
Comparative tranquillity reigned until the breaking out of the Revolution. 

An interesting occurrence during this tranquil period was the arrival from 
England of George Fox, the founder of the Society of Friends or Quakers. In 
the assemblage which gathered on the shores of the Chesapeake to listen to his 
preaching were members of the Legislature, the leading men of the province, 
ludian sachems and their families, with their great chief at their head. 

The disputed boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania was fixed in 



70 SETTLEMENT OF THE THIRTEEN ORIGINAL STATES. 

1767, by two surveyors named Mason and Dixon. This boundary became 
famous in after years as the dividing line between the free and slave States. 

Charles II., in 1663 and 1665, granted the land between Florida and 
Virginia to eight proprietors. The country had been named Carolina in honor 
of their king, Charles IX. (Latin, Carolus), and since Charles II. was King 
of England the name was retained, though he was not the ruler meant thus 
to be honored. The country was comparatively uninhabited after the failure of 
the French colony, except by a few Virginians, who made a settlement on the 
northern shore of Albemarle Sound. 

THE CAROUNAS. 

For twenty years the proprietors tried to establish upon American soil one 
of the most absurd forms of government ever conceived. The land was to be 
granted to nobles, known as barons, landgraves, and caziques, while the rest of 
the peojjle were not to be allowed to hold any land, but were to be bought and 
sold with the soil, like so many cattle. The settlers ridiculed and defied the 
fantastical scheme, which had to be abandoned. It .was the work of John 
Locke, the famous philosopher, who at one time was secretary of Lord Cooper, 
one of the proprietors. 

The first settlement of the Carteret colony was made in 1670, on the banks 
of the Ashley, but in 1680 it was removed to the present site of Charleston. 
The colonies remained united for about seventy years, when it became apparent 
that the territory was too large to be well governed by one assembly and a single 
governor. In 1729, the j^resent division was made, and the rights of government 
and seven-eighths of the land were returned to the crown. 

The soil and climate were so favorable that thousands of immigrants were 
attracted thither. Among them were numerous Huguenots or French Protest- 
ants, whose intelligence, thrift, and morality placed them among the very best 
settlers found anywhere in our country. Newbern was settled by a colony of 
Swiss in 1711, and there was a large influx of Scotch after their rebellion of 
1740, England giving them permission to leave Scotland. Scotch immigrants 
settled Fayetteville in 1746. 

There were occasional troubles with the Indians, the most important of 
which was the war with the Tuscaroras, in 1711. This tribe was utterly defeated 
and driven northward into New York, where they joined the Iroquois or Five 
Nations. The union of the Tuscaroras caused the Iroquois to be known after- 
ward as the Six Nations. 

The Carolinas were afflicted with some of the worst governors conceivable, 
interspersed now and then with excellent ones. Often there was sturdy resist- 
ance, and in 1677 one of the governors, who attempted to enforce the Naviga- 



I 



GEORGIA. 71 

tiou Act, was deposed and imprisoned. In 1688, another was driven out of the 
colony. The jjopulation was widely scattered, but the people themselves were 
as a whole the best khid of citizens. They would not permit religious perse* 
cution, and defeated the effort to make the Church of England the colony 
church. As a consequence, tlie Carolinas became, like Maryland and Pennsylva- 
nia, a refuge for thousands of those who were persecuted in the name of religion. 

GEORGIA. 

Georgia was the last of the thirteen original colonies to be settled, and, 
though it long remained the weakest of them all, its history is very interesting. 
It, too, was a country of refuge for those suffering persecution, but their affliction 
was different in its nature from those of whom we have made recoixl. 

One of the remarkable facts connected with the government of nations 
claiming the highest civilization, hardly more than a century ago, was the 
brutality of their laws. Many crimes, 
comparatively trifling in their nature, 
were punishable with death. One of 
the most cruel of these oppressive laws 
was that which permitted a man to 
throw into prison a neighbor who was 
unable to pay the money he owed. If a 
poor tenant fell ill, and could not pay 
his landlord, the latter could have him 
flung into jail and kej^t there until the colonial plow with wooden 
debt.was paid. Since the debtor was un- ,,, , T^^'u"? ,?'''''';,'J°\ v . 

•C^ (State Agricultural Museum, Albany, N. Y.) 

able to earn a penny while in prison, 

and probably his wife and children were equally helpless, the landlord thus de- 
prived himself of all possibility of getting his money, while the wretched debtor 
literally "rotted" in prison. Thousands died in dreadful misery, merely because 
they were poor. 

This system of allowing imprisonment for debt jjrevailed in our own 
country until within the memory of men still living. It makes one's cheeks 
tingle with shame and indignation to recall that Robert Morris, who devoted all 
his wealth and energies to raising money for the patriots during the Revolution, 
who furnished Washington with thousands of dollars, and but for whose help 
the war must have failed, became poor after independence was gained and waa 
imprisoned for debt. 

The system caused such horrible suffering in England that the pity of all 
good men was stirred. Among these was James Edward Oglethorpe, one of the 
most admirable characters in modern history. He was a brave and skillful 




72 



SETTLEMENT OF THE THIRTEEN ORIGINAL STATES. 




soldier, eminently just, of the highest social position and a membei* of Parlia- 
ment. He determined to do something practical for the 

perishing debtors in English jails. He, therefore, asbed 

George II. to give him a grant of land in America to 

which the imprisoned debtors could be sent, and the 

king, whose heart also seemed to be touched, promjitly 

did so. It was said of Oglethorpe that the universal 

respect felt for him made certain that any favor he 

asked of his own associates or friends would be willingly 

granted. 

The king not only j^resented him with valuable 

equipments, but Parliament granted him a liberal sum, 

to which wealthy citizens added. He had the best wishes 

of his entire country when he sailed for America with 

one hundred and fourteen persons. He named the new 

colony Georgia in honor of the king, and began the set- 
tlement of Savannah in 1733, Darien and Augusta being 

founded three years later. It need hardly be said of 

such a man, that, like Penn and Baltimore, he bought 

the lands anew of the Indians and retained their friend- 
ship from the start. On one of his visits to England 

he took a party of red men with him, entertained them at 

his country place and presented them at court. 

The Spaniards claimed Georgia as their own teri-i- 

tory, and raised a large force with which 
to expel Oglethorpe, whose colony had 
been increased by the arrival of other 
immigrants, but the English officer handled 
his men with such extraordinary skill that 
the Spaniards were utterly routed. 

It would be supposed that Georgia 
would have been one of the most successful 
of the original colonies, since seemingly it 
l^ossessed every advantage, but such was far 
from the fact. One cause for this was the 
" coddling " the pioneers received. They 
were harmed by too much kindness. Had 
they been compelled to hew their owi' way, 
like their neighbors, they would have d'One 

better. They were like children spoiled by being granted too mar y favors. 



ANCIENT HOHSE- 
SHOES PLOWED UP IN 
SCHENECTADY CO., 
N. Y. 
(In the New York State Agricultu- 
ral Museum.) 




A COLONIAL FLAX-WHEEL. 



GROWTH OF THE AMERICAN COLONIES. 



73 




(Fac-simile of a picture in Edward Williams' " Virgiaia Truly Valued." 1650.J 



Another cause was the poor laws by which the people were ruled. Slavery 
at first was forbidden within 
its borders, though it was tol- 
erated all about them. Then, 
in 1747, the trustees yielded 
to the general demand and ad- 
mitted slavery. Other rules 
caused discontent, and many 
settlers moved away. Popula- 
tion ajjpeared to be at a stand- 
still, and finally the trustees in 
1752 surrendered their rights 
to the crown. More liberal 
laws followed and the prosper- 
ity increased. silk-winding. 

Of General Oglethorpe, it 
may be added that he lived to reach his ninety-eighth year. It was said of him 
that he was the handsomest old man in London, and peoj^le often stojiped on the 
streets to look at and admire him. He always had a warm regard for the 
American colonies. Indeed, it was this marked friendship for them which pre- 
vented his appointment as commander-in-chief of the British forces during the 
Revolution. 

GROWTH OF THE AMERICAN COLONIES. 

It will thus be seen that, beginning with Virginia, in 1607, the American 
colonies had grown in a little more than a century and a quarter to thirteen. 
These were strung along the Atlantic coast from Maine to Florida, and in 1750 
their population was about 1,260,000. This was vigorous growth. All the 
colonists, although born on this side of the Atlantic, considered themselves Eng- 
lishmen, and were proud of their king, three thousand miles away across the 

ocean. With such loyal subjects, the English 
crown had the best opportunity in the Avorld to 
become the most iwwerful of all the nations. 

But Great Britain was not free from mis- 
giving over the rapid growth of her American 
colonies. Nothing looked more probable than 
that before many years they would unite in one 
A coMFORTiEB, OK CHAFING- government of their own and declare their inde- 
CNew York State Cabinet of Natural iiistorj-. peudeuce of the British crowu. Thcu was the 
'^''""''■' time for the display of wise statesmanship, but 

unhappily for England and happily for the colonies, such wise statesmanship 




74 



SETTLEMENT OF THE THIRTEEN ORIGINAL STATES. 



proved to be lacking on the other side of the water. The colonies displayed 
great industry. They grew tobacco, rice, indigo, and many other products 
which were eagerly welcomed by the British merchants, who exported their 
own manufactures in exchange for them. The inevitable result was thatll 
England and the American colonies increased their wealth by this means. 
Not only that, but the colonies voted shijjs, men, and money to help the 
mother country in the wars in which she was often involved. 

As early as 1651, Parliament passed the first of the oppressive Navigation 
Acts, which forbade the colonies to trade with any other country than England, 
or to receive foreign ships into their ports. This act was so harsh and unjust 
that it was never generally enforced, until the attempt, more than a century 
later, when it became one of the leading causes of the American Revolution. 




* 

i 



EARLY DAYS XN NKW KNGJjA.NU 



I 





S 4 6 

PLACES or WOKSHIP IN NEW YORK IN 1742. 
1. LutlMran. 2. French. 3. Trinity. 4, New Dutch. 5. Old Dutch. 6. Presbyterian. T. Baptist. 8. Quaker. 9. Synagogue. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE INTERCOLONIAL WARS AND THE ERENCH 

AND INDIAN WAR. 

King William's War— Queen Anne's War— King George's War— The French and Indian War — Eng- 
land and France Rivals in the Old World and the New— The Early French Settlements— The 
Disputed Territory— France's Fatal Weakness— Washington's Journey Through the Wilderness — 
The First Fight of the War— The War Wholly American for Two Years— The Braddock Mas- 
aacre— The Great Change Wrought by William Pitt— Fall of Quebec— Momentous Consequences 
of the Great English Victory— The Growth and Progress of the Colonies and Their Home Life. 



KING WILLIAM S WAR. 

If anything were needed to prove the utter uselessness and horrible bar- 
barity of war, it is found in a history of the strife in which the American 
colonies were involved through the quarrels of their rulers, thousands of miles 
iway on the other side of the Atlantic. Men lived for years in America as 
tieighbors, meeting and exchanging visits on the most friendly terms, and with 
QO thought of enmity, until the arrival of some ship with news that their respec- 
tive governments in Europe had gone to war. Straightway, the neighbors be- 
came enemies, and, catching up their guns, did their best to kill one another. 
Untold misery and hundreds of lives were lost, merely because two ambitious 
men had gotten into a wrangle. The result of such a dispute possessed no earthly 
interest to the people in the depths of the American wilderness, but loyalty to 
their sovereigns demanded thnt they should plunge into strife. 

As time passed, Spain and Holland declined in power, and England and 
France became formidable rivals in the New World as well as in the Old. In 
1689, when William III. was on the throne of England, war broke out between 
that country and France and lasted until 1697. The French, having settled in 
Canada, were wise enough to cultivate the friendship of the Indians, who helped 
them in their savage manner in desolating the English settlements. Dover, New 

(75) 



76 INTERCOLONIAL WARS— FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR. 

Hampshire, was attacked by the French and Indians, who killed more than a 
score of persons and carried away a number of captives. In other places, settlers 
were surprised in the fields and shot down. Early in 1690, another party came 
down from Canada, and, when the snow lay deep on the ground and the people 
were sleeping in their beds, made a furious attack upon Schenectady. The town 
was burned and sixty persons tomahawked, while the survivors, half-clad, 
struggled through the snow to Albany, sixteen miles distant. 

The Americans in retaliation attempted to invade Canada, but the result 
was a disastrous failure. The war continued in a desultory way, with great 
cruelties on both sides, until 1697, when a treaty signed at Ryswick, Holland, 
settled the quarrel between King William and James II., by deciding that the 
former was the rightful king of England. The suffering and deaths that had 
been inflicted on this side of the Atlantic produced not the slightest effect upon 
the quarrel between the two claimants to the throne. 

QUEEN ANNE'S WAR. 

In 1702, England got into a wrangle with France and Spain. This time 
the Iroqiiois Indians took no part, because of their treaty with France, although 
in the previous war they fought on the side of the English. In the depth of 
winter in 1703-4, Deerfield, Massachusetts, was attacked and destroyed. Forty- 
seven of the people were tomahawked and more than a hundred carried into 
captivity. Their sufferings were so dreadful on the long tramp through the 
snow to Canada that nearly all sank down and died. Maine and New Hamp- 
shire were devastated by the hordes, who showed no mercy to women and chil- 
dren. Another English invasion of Canada was attemiited, but failed like its 
predecessor. The aimless, cruel war continued until 1713, when a treaty of 
peace was signed at Utrecht in Holland, by which England secured control of 
the fisheries of Newfoundland, while Labrador, Hudson Bay, and Acadia or 
Nova Scotia were ceded to Great Britain. The result in both instances would 
have been the same had the English and French settlers and the Indians con- 
tinued on amicable terms. 

KING GEORGE'S WAR. 

In 1740, the War for the Austrian Succession broke out in Europe and 
soon involved most of the Euroj^ean nations. Because George II. was on the 
throne of England, the struggle is known in this country as King George's War. 

A notable event in America was the capture of the fortress of Louisburg, 
one of the strongest fortifications in the world, mainly by New England trooj^s. 
It was a grand achievement which thrilled this country and England, and 
caused consternation in France. A treaty of peace was signed in 1744 at Aix- 
la-Clhapelle, a town in western Germany. New England was enraged to find 



THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR. 



77 



that by the terms of this treaty Louisburg was given back to France, and all 
her valor, sacrifice, and suffer- 
ing went for naught, 

THE FRENCH AND INDIAN 
WAR. 

It has already been shown 
that England and France, ^' 
who had long been rivals in 
the Old World, had become 





equally bitter rivals 
>n this side of the 
Atlantic. On the 
west, the thirteen 
Englihh colonieswere 
walled in by the Al- 
leghany Mountains, 
beyond which none 
of the settlers had advanced. 
All the country lying be- 
tween these mountains and 
the ]Mi'?=!issippi was claimed 
by France, who was pushing 
southward through it, and 
had given it the name of New 
France or Louisiana. The 
first French settlement within 
the northwestern part of our 
country was the mission of St. Mary, near Sault Ste. Marie, now in the State of 



THE ATTACK ON RIOTERS AT SPRINGFIELD, MASS., 
IN 1788. 



(i 



78 INTERCOLONIAL WARS— FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR. 

Michigau, it having been established iu 1668. Several others of minor import- 
ance were planted at different points. 

England did not oppose the acquirement of Canada by the French early 
in the seventeenth century, but no serious attempt was made by that people to 
colonize the territory within the United States until 1699, when D'Iberville 
crossed the Gulf of Mexico iu quest of the mouth of the Mississippi. When he 
found it, he planted a settlement at Biloxi, now iu Mississippi, but removed it 
in 1702 to Mobile. The Mississippi Company, a French organization, obtained 
in 1716 a grant of Louisiana, and in 1718 sent out a colony that began the 
settlement of New Orleans. 

It will thus be seen that by 1750 the French had acquired large posses- 
sions in North America. They were determined to hold them, and, to do so, 
established a chain of sixty forts reaching from Montreal to the Gulf of Mexico. 
These forts were the foundations of many important cities of to-day, such as 
New Orleans, Natchez, Detroit, Vincennes, Toledo, Fort Wayne, Ogdensburg, 
and Montreal. To the rear of the main chain of forts were others like Mack- 
inaw, Peoria, and Kaskaskia. 

Extensive as was the territory thus taken possession of by the French, 
they were fatally weak because of their scant population, amounting to less than 
150,000 souls, while the English colonies had grown to 1,500,000. The French 
traders were just about strong enough to hold the Indians in check, but no 
more. 

Thus with the French on the west and the English on the east of the 
AUeghanies, the two rival forces were slowly creeping toward each other, and 
were bound soon to meet, when the supreme struggle for possession of the 
North American continent would open. By-and-by, the French hunters an 
traders, as they climbed the western slope of the mountains, met the Englis 
trappers moving in their direction. Being the advance skirmishers of their' 
respective armies, they often exchanged shots, and then fell back to report whai 
they had seen and done to their countrymen. 

The fertile lands of the Great West had long attracted attention, and 
many efforts had been made to buy them at a cheap price to sell again to^j 
settlers. In 1749, the Oliio Company was formed by a number of London*' 
merchants and several prominent Virginians. The lands they bought lay in 
western Pennsylvania, which Virginia claimed as part of her territory. This 
company proved its earnestness by sending out surveyors, opening roads, an 
offering tempting inducements to settlers. 

The French were equally prompt and took possession of the countryj 
between the AUeghanies and their main chain of forts. They built a fort a 
Presq' Isle, on the site of the present city of Erie, and began erecting a ne 



16 

i 

r 

1l 









i 



WASmXG TON'S JO URNE Y. 



79 



chain of forts southward toward the Ohio. Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia 
saw the danger of permitting tliis encroachment, and lie wrote a letter of remon- 
strance to the French commander, which was placed in the hands of George 
Washington', to be carried five hundred miles through wilderness, across moun- 
tains and dangerous rivers, to the point in western Pennsylvania where the 
French ofiicer was building his forts upon disputed ground. 




YOUNG WASHINGTON BIDING A COLT. 

One summer morning, young George, with three or four boys, was in the field looking at a colt, given him by his mother, 
»nd when the boys said that it could never be tamed, George said : " You help me get on its baclc, and I'll tame it." 

The journey was a long and perilous one, but Washington, who was a 
magnificent specimen of vigorous young manhood, performed it in safety and 
brought back the reply of the French commander, which notified Governor 
Dinwiddie that he not only refused to vacate the territory, but would drive out 
every Englishman he found within it. 

This meant war, and Virginia made her preparations. She raised about 
400 men and placed them under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Washing- 



80 INTERCOLONIAL WARS— FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR. 

ton, who was more familiar with the country than anyone else. The Ohio 
Company at that time were jjutting up a fort on the present site of Pittsburg, 
and Washington hurried forward to protect it. The Frenchmen understood 
the value of a post at the junction of the Alleghany and Monongahela Rivers, 
and also started on a race for it. They arrived first, captured the fort, strength- 
ened it, and gave it the nanie of Fort Duquesne. That done, they set out to 
meet Washington, who was descending the Monongahela. 

OPENING OF THE WAR. 

The meeting between these forces brouglit on the first fight of the French 
and Indian War. It was the advance party of each which met, and it is said 
that the first musket was fired by Washington himself. The French had en- 
listed a number of Indians, but Washington killed or captured nearly all of 
them as well as the whites. The main body of the French, however, was so 
much more powerful than his own, that Washington moved back a few miles 
and built a fortification which he named Fort Necessity. There, after a brisk 
fight, he was compelled to surrender, July 4, 1754, on the promise that he and 
his men should be allowed to return to Virginia. That province was so well 
pleased with his work that he acted as its leading officer throughout the re- 
mainder of the war. 

A peculiarity of the French and Indian War must be noted. For two 
years it was entirely an Amei'ican war, not extending to Europe until 1756. 
For the first time the English colonies acted together. They saw the value of 
the territory in dispute and Avere ready to make common cause for its possession. 
England was inclined to let them do the best they could without hel]) from 
her. She advised that they form some plan for united action. In accordance 
with this suggestion, a meeting was held at Albany in 1754, comjjosed of dele- 
gates from Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, and the New England colonies. 
Benjamin Franklin, the great philosopher, proposed the " Albany plan of 
Union," which was agreed upon. 

When this was submitted to the king, he saw too nmcli of American inde- 
pendence in it, and promptly rejected it, while the colonies did the same on 
the ground that it gave the king too much power. There was much significance 
in this action. 

EXPULSION OF THE CANADIANS. 

It was now so evident that war must soon come that England ana France 
began sending troops to America. At the same time, the respective govern- 
ments continued to profess — diplomatically — their strong friendship for each 
other. In June, 1755, a force consisting of British regulars and colonial troops 
sailed from Boston and captured the few remaining French forts in Nova 



II 



BRADDOCK'S MASSACRE. 



81 



Scotia. The inhabitants were gathered together in their churches, placed on 
ships, and then distributed southward among the English colonies. This act 
has been often denounced as one unworthy of the British people. 



BRADDOCKS MASSACRE. 

Among the English officers who arrived in 1755 was General Edward 




Braddock. 
He was brave 
and skillful, but 
conceited and stub- 
born. When Washing- 
ton, who was one of his 
aides, explained to him 
the character of the 
treacherous foes whom 
he would have to fight 
and advised him to ado^it 
similar tactics, the English 
officer insultingly answered 
that when he felt the need 

of advice from a young Virginian, he would ask for it. He marched toward 
Fort Duquesne and was within a few miles of the post, when he ran into an am- 
bush and was assailed so vehemently by a force of French and Indians that 
half his men were killed, the rest put to flight, and himself mortally wounded. 
Washington and his Virginians, by adopting the Indian style of fighting, 
checked the pursuit and saved the remainder of the men. 

In the spring of 1756, England and France declared war against each 



BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT. 



82 



INTERCOLONIAL WARS— FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR. 



other and the struggle now involved those two countries. For two years the 
English, despite their pre2:»onderance of forces in America, lost rather than 
gained ground. Their officers sent across the ocean were a sorry lot, while the 
French were commanded by Montcalm, a brilliant leader. He concentrated his 
forces and delivered many effective blows, capturing the forts on the northern 
border of New York and winning all the Indians to his support. The English 
fought in detached bodies and were continually defeated. 



ENGLISH SUCCESSES. 

But a change came in 1758, when William Pitt, one of the greatest Eng- 
lishmen in history, was cidled to the head of the government. He weeded out 
inefficient officers, replaced them with skillful ones, who, concentrating their 

troops, assailed the French at three import- 
ant points. Louisburg, on Cape Breton 
Island, which had been captured more than 
a hundred years before, during King 
George's War, was again taken by a naval 
expedition in the summer of 1758. In the 
autumn. Fort Duquesne was captured with- 
out resistance and named Fort Pitt, in honor 
of the illustrious j^rime minister. The single 
defeat administered to the English was at 
Ticonderoga, where Montcalm commanded 
in person. This was a severe repulse, in 
which the English lost in the neighborhood 
of 1,600 men. It was offset by the expul- 
sion of the French from northwestern New 
York and the cajDture of Fort Frontenac, 
on the present site of Kingston in Canada. 

One wise step of Pitt was in winning the cordial support of the provincials, 
as the colonists were called, to tlie British regulars. Our ancestors thus gained 
a most valuable military training which served them well in the great struggle 
for independence a few years later. 




MARTELLO TO'W^R OW THE HEIGHTS 

OF ABRAHAM, "WHERE ■WOLFE 

•WAS KILLED. 



WOLFE S GREAT VICTORY. 

The year 1759 brought decisive success to the English. Knowing that 
they intended to attack Quebec, Montcalm drew in his troops to defend that 
city. It therefore was an easy matter for the English to capture Ticonderoga, 
Crown Point, and Fort Niagara. General Wolfe, one of the very ablest of 
English leaders, left Louisburg with a fleet and sailed up the St. Lawrence. 




Ill 




WOLFE'S GREAT VICTORY. 



83 



He foand the fortifications of Quebec at so great an elevation that he could makfc 
no impression upon them. Three months passed in idle waiting and the 
besiegers were almost disheartened. Wolfe himself was so distressed by anxiety 

that he fell ill. The saga- 
cious Montcalm could not be 
induced to come out and give 




A DUTCH HOUSEHOLD. 

As seen in the early days in New York. 



battle, and there seemed no 
way of reaching him. 

But the lion-hearted 
Wolfe would not be denied. He found a path leading up to the Heights of 
Abraham, as the plain above was called, and, selecting a mild night in September, 
his troops floated down the river in their boats and landed at the foot of the cliff". 
All night long the English soldiers were clambering up the steep path, dragging 
a few guns with them, and, when the morning sun rose, it shone on the flashing 
bayonets of the whole army drawn up in battle array before the walls of Quebec. 



84 INTERCOLONIAL WARS— FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR. 

The astonished Montcalm, instead of remaining within the city, marched 
his army out and gave battle. In the fight both Wolfe and Montcalm were 
fatally wounded. Wolfe lived long enough to learn that the French were flee- 
ing before his victorious troops. " Now, I can die happy," he said, and shortly 
after expired. When Montcalm was told he must die, he mournfully replied : 
" So much the better ; I shall not live to see the surrender of Quebec." 

MOMENTOUS RESULTS OF THE WAR. 

This battle was one of the decisive ones of the world, for, as will be seen, 
its results were of momentous imjjortance to mankind. The conquest of Canada 
followed in 1760, and the other French forts fairly tumbled into the possession 
of the English. Pontiac, Chief of the Ottawas, was so angered at the turn of 
events that he refused to be bound by the terms of the surreiulei-. He brought 
a number of tribes into an alliance, captured several British posts in the West, 
and laid siege to Detroit for more than a year, but in the end he was defeated, 
his confederacy scattered, and Pontiac himself, like Philip, was killed by one 
of his own race. 

The war was over, so far as America was concerned, but England and 
Fi-ance kept it up for nearly three years, fighting on the ocean and elsewhere. 
In 1762, Spain joined France, but received a telling blow in the same year, 
when an English expedition captured the city of Havana. In this important 
event, the provincials gave valuable aid to the British regulars. The colonies 
also sent out a number of privateers which captured many rich prizes from the 
S^ianiards. 

By 1763, Great Britain had completely conquered France and Spain, and a 
treaty of peace was signed at Paris. France and Spain agreed to give up all of 
North America east of the Mississippi, and England ceded Cuba to Spain in ex- 
change for Florida, exchanging Florida in 1783 /or the Bahama Islands. The 
former was a victory for Spanish diplomacy, since Florida was practically worth- 
less to Spain, while Havana, the capital of Cuba, was an enormously wealthy 
city, and the island possessed marvelous fertility and almost boundless resources. 

France, after her wholesale yielding to England, paid Spain her ally by 
ceding to her all her possessions west of the Mississippi, including the city of 
New Orleans. This enormous territory, then known as Louisiana, compre- 
hended everything between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi River, from 
British America to the Gulf of Mexico. In extent it was an empire from which 
many of the most important States of the Union have been carved. When it 
is remembered that these changes were the result of a war in which the capture 
of Quebec was the decisive conflict, it will be admitted that there was ample 
warrant for pronouncing it one of the great battles of the world. 



i 



MOMENTOUS RESULTS OF THE WAR. 



85 



The thirteen original colonies were now "full grown." Their jDopulation 
had increased to 2,000,000 and was fast growing. Their men had proven their 
bravery and generalship in the French and Indian War. Many of them had 
developed into fine officers, and all compared favorably with the British regu- 
lars. Their loyalty to England was proven by the 30,000 lives that had been 
given that she might conquer her traditional rival and enemy. 

The adventurous spirit of the colonists was shown by the fact that many 
began crossing the Alleghanies into the fertile district beyond, where they were 
in continual danger from the fierce Indians. James Robertson led a party of 




MEMOKIAL HALL, HAHVABD COLLEGE. 



emigrants who made the first settlement in Tennessee in 1768, and the famous 
Daniel Boone and a company of immigrants were the pioneers in Kentucky in 
1769. No effort was made to settle the country north of the Ohio until after 
the Revolution. 

The intellectual progress of the colonies was remarkable. The first print- 
ing press was set up at Cambridge in 1639, and newspapers and books were in 
general circulation. Harvard College was founded in Massachusetts in 1638 ; 
William and Mary, in Virginia, in 1692 ; Yale, in Connecticut, in 1700 ; the 
College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), in 1746 ; the University of 
Pennsylvania, in 1749; and King's College (now Columbia), in New York, in 



86 



INTERCOLONIAL WARS— FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR. 



1754. Much attention was given to education, commerce was greatly extended, 
the oppressive Navigation Act being generally disregarded, and thousands of 
citizens were in prosperous circumstances. 

More significant than all else was the growth of the sentiment of unity 
among the diiferent colonies. Although properly known as provincials, to dis- 
tinguish them from the British, they now, instead of speaking of themselves as 
New Englanders or Virginians or Englishmen, often substituted the name 
" Americans." The different colonies were looked upon as members of the 
same great family, ready to make common cause against a danger threatening 
any one of them. Some of the bolder ones began to express the thought that it 
would be a fine thing if they were all independent of the mother country, 
though for years the sentiment assumed no importance. 

Now was the time for England to display wisdom, justice, and statesman- 
ship toward her subjects in America. 
Had she treated them as she now treats 
Canada and Australia and her other col- 
onies, there never would have been a 
Revolution. No doubt in time we should 
have separated from her, but the sepa- 
ration would have been peaceable. 

But while Great Britain has always 
been immeasurably above Spain in her 
J treatment of her American subjects, she 
was almost as foolish, because she 
chilled the loyalty that had been proven 
in too many instances to be doubted. 
The mother country was laboring under 
the weight of burdensome taxes, and, 
since the colonies had always been prompt in voting money and supplies as well 
as men to assist England, Parliament thought she saw a way of shouldering a 
large part of this burden upon the Americans. Her attempts to do so and the 
results therefrom properly belong to the succeeding chajjter. 




BIBLE BROUGHT OVEB IN THE "MAY 

FLOWER," IN PILGRIM HALL, 

NEW PLYMOUTH. 



HOME LIFE OF THE COLONISTS. 

A few facts will assist in understanding the events that follow. Slavery, 
as has been stated, was legal and existed in all the colonies, but climatic con- 
ditions caused it to flourish in the South and decline in the North. All the 
colonies were Protestant, though religious liberty was pei'mitted everywhere. 

The laws were amazingly strict -and would never be submitted to in these 
times. To illustrate : a watchman in Hartford rang a bell every morning as 



HOME LIFE OF THE COLONISTS. 



87 



notice to all adults to rise from their beds. Massachusetts had fourteen and 
Virginia seventeen offenses that were punishable with death. Some of the 
minor punishments were unique. If a woman became a common scold, she 
was placed near her own door, with a gag fastened in her mouth, that all might 
see and beware of her example. For other offenses, a man was ducked in water 
or put in the stocks. A stock was a strong framework, through which the feet 
or both feet and hands were thrust and held fast, while the pillory was a frame- 
work through which the head and hands of a criminal were imjirisoned. Be- 
sides the disgrace attending such punishment, it was very trying. The whipping- 
post was quite common long after the Revolution, and it is still occasionally used 
in Delaware. 




AMEKICAN STAGE-COACH OF 1795, FBOM "WELD'S TRAVELS." 

(Probably similar in form to those of the later colonial period.) 

Men and boys dressed much alike, and the fashions for women and girls 
were similar. The breeches of the men suggested the present style of knicker- 
bockers, the rich making quite a display of silver buckles and buttons. The 
breeches of the poorer people were made of coarse cloth, deerskin, or leather, the 
object being to obtain all the wear possible. The wealthy used velvet, and the 
men and women were as fond of display as their descendants. 

In the earliest days, all the houses were made of logs, and oiled paper took 
the place of glass for windows. Carpets were an unknown luxury. Often the 
floor was the smooth, hard ground. The cooking was done in the big fireplace, 



88 INTERCOLONIAL WAR— FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR. 

where an iron arm called a crane was swung over the fire and sustained the 
pots and kettles. Coal and matches were unknown, a fire being started by 
means of a piece of steel and flint or with the help of a sun glass. 

Cofiee and tea were great luxuries, but nearly every family made its own 
beer. Rum and hard cider were drunk by church people as well as others, the 
only fault being when one drank too much. The important cities and towns 
were connected by stages, but most of the traveling was done on foot or horse- 
back. Since most of the settlements were near the sea or on large- rivers, long 
journeys were made by means of coasting slooj^s. When a line of stages in 
1766 made the tri]:* between New York and Philadelphia in two days, it was 
considered so wonderful that the vehicles were called "flying machines." 

Regarding tlie state of religion in the colonies, Prof. George F. Holmes 
says : 

" The state of religion among the peoi^le differed greatly in the different 
provinces. The Church of England was the established religion in New York, 
Virginia, and the Carolinas. In Maryland, the population remained largely 
Roman Catholic. In New England the original Puritanism was dominant, but 
its rigor had become much softened. A solemn and somewhat gloomy piety, 
however, still prevailed. The Presbyterians were numerous, influential, and 
earnest in New Jersey. There, but especially in Pennsylvania, were the quiet 
and gentle Quakers. In Carolina and Georgia, IMoravians and other German 
Protestants were settled, and Huguenot families were frequent in Virginia and 
South Carolina. 

"Everywhere, however, was found an intermixture of creeds, and conse- 
quently the need of toleration had been experienced. Laxity of morals and of 
conduct was alleged against the communities of the Anglican Church. In the 
middle of the eighteenth century a low tone of religious sentiment was general. 
The revival of fervor, which was incited then by the Wesleys, was widely spread 
by Whitefield in America, and Methodism was making itself felt throughout the 
country. The Baptists were spreading in different colonies and were acquiring 
influence by their earnest simplicity. They favored liberty in all forms and be- 
came warm partisans of the revolutionary movement." 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE REVOLUTION— THE WAR IN NEW 

ENGLAND. 

Causes of the Revolution — The Stamp Act — The Boston Tea Party — England's Unbearable Measures— 
The First Continental Congress — The Boston Massacre— Lexington and Concord — The Second Con- 
tinental Congress — Battle of Bunker Hill — Assumption of Command by Washington — British 
Evacuation of Boston — Disastrous Invasion of Canada. 

CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION. 

England was never guilty of greater folly than in the treatment of her 
American colonies after the close of the French and Indian War. As has been 
said, she was oppressed by burdensome taxation and began seeking excuse for 
shifting a large portion of it upon the shoulders of her prosperous subjects 
across the sea, who had always been ready to vote money and give their sons to 
help in the wars which were almost solely for the benefit of the mother country. 
It has been shown that the intercolonial conflicts were of no advantage to the 
colonies which were dragged into them and suffered greatly therefrom. Since 
the surrounding territory would soon be necessary for the expansion of the 
Americans, they had much to gain by the defeat of the French and their expul- 
sion from America; but they had done their full share, and it was unjust to de- 
mand further sacrifices from them. 

PASSAGE OF THE STAMP ACT. 

Hardly had peace been declared, when, in 1764, the British government 
asserted that it had the right to tax her colonies. The latter paid little atten- 
tion to the declaration, but were rudely awakened in 1765 by the passage of 
the Stamp Act, which was to go into effect in November of that year. It de- 
creed that thenceforward no newspapers or pamphlets could be printed, no mar- 
riage-certificate given, and no documents used in lawsuits, unless stamps were 
attached, and these could be bought only from British agents. 

It was ordered further that the oppressive Navigation Acts, which had 
been evaded for a hundred years, should be rigidly enforced, while soldiers were 
to be sent to America to see that the orders were carried out. Since these 
troops were to be paid from the money received for the stamps, it will be seen 

(89) 



90 THE REVOLUTION— THE WAR IN NEW ENGLAND. 



that the Americans "would be obliged to bear the expense of the soldiers quar- 
tered upon them. 

Now we use revenue stamps to-day and no one objects, but the difference 
in the two cases is that we tax ourselves for our own expenses, and our repre- 
sentatives grade the taxes so as to suit the people. If we do not think the taxes 
equitable, we can elect other representatives, pledged to change them. But it 
must be remembered that we never had a representative in the British Parlia- 
ment, whose English members did just as they pleased. That was " taxation 
without representation." 

The news of the action of the British government threw the colonies into 
an angry mood and they vehemently declared their intention to resist the Stamp 
Act. They did not content themselves with words, but mobbed the stamp 
agents, comi3elled others to resign, and, when the date arrived for the act to go 
into effect, they refused to buy a single obnoxious stamp. 

KEPEAL OF THE STAMP ACT. 

The Stamp Act Congress, as it was called, met in New York City, October 
7, 1765. There were representatives from all the colonies except four, but they 
supported the others. Lacking the authority to make any laws, it issued a bold 
declaration of rights and sent petitions to the king and Parliament, setting forth 
the American grievances. The sturdy resistance of the colonies alarmed Eng- 
land. They had many friends in Parliament, including the illustrious Pitt, 
and, at the beginning of 1766, the act was repealed. The Americans were so 
delighted that they almost forgot that England in repealing the act still asserted 
her right to tax them. 

Several years now followed in which the colonies quietly resisted the efforts 
of England to tax them. This was done by a general agreement not to buy 
any of the articles upon which taxes were laid. The men who did this and 
opposed the mother country were known as Whigs, while those who stood by 
England were called Tories. 

DEFIANT ACTS BY THE AMERICANS. 

But violence was sure to follow where the indignation was so intense and 
widespread. There were continual broils between the British soldiers and citi- 
zens, the most serious of which occurred in Boston on March 5, 1770, when the 
soldiers fired upon the citizens who had attacked them, killed three and wounded 
several. This incident, known in history as the " Boston Massacre," added to 
the mutual anger. In North Carolina, William Tryon, the Tory Governor, had 
a battk with the patriots at Alamance in 1771, killed a large number, and 
treated others so brutally that many fled across the mountains and heljjed to 



1 



ENGLAND'S UNBEARABLE MEASURES. 



91 



settle Tennessee. In 1772, a British vessel, the Gaspe, which was active in col- 
lecting duties from Providence, was captured and burned by a number of Rhode 
Island people. England offered a reward for the cajrture of the " rebels," but, 
though they were well known, no one would have dared, if so disposed, to arrest 
them. 

THE BOSTON TEA PAKTY. 

The British Parliament was impatient with the colonies, and threatened all 
sorts of retaliatory measures. In 1770, Parliament took the tax off of all articles 
except tea, upon which it was made 
so light that the luxury was cheaper 
in America with the tax than in Eng- 
land without it. The Americans; 
however, were contending for a Y>vin- 
ciple, and contemptuously rejected the 
offer. When the tea ships reached 
Charleston, the cargoes were stored 
in damp cellars, where they soon mold- 
ed and spoiled. At New York, Phil- 
adelphia, and other jioints they would 
not allow the ships to land their car- 
goes, and they sailed back to Eng- 
land. A similar reception having 
been given the vessels in Boston, the 
British officers refused to leave the 
harbor. Late at night, December 16, 
1773, a party of citizens, painted and 
disguised as Indians, boarded the ships 
and emptied 342 chests — all on board 

. ^ THE OLD SOUTH CHUHCH, BOSTOIT. 

■ illLU lUc lldl UUl . A^j immense assemblage gathered here on the evening of Dec 

Tlie "Boston Tpfl Partv" thrilled l^, 1773, and stirring addresses were made by Josiah Quincy and 

•^ Samuel Adams. The " Boston Tea Party " followed. 

the colonies and exhausted the pa- 
tience of England, who felt that the time for stern measures had come. Her 
dallying course had only encouraged the rebels, and as in the story, having tried 
in vain the throwing of grass, she now determined to see what virtue there was 

in using stones. 

England's unbearable measures. 

The measures which she passed and which were unbearable were : 1. The 
Boston Port Bill, which forbade all vessels to leave or enter Boston harbor. 
This was a death-blow to Boston commerce and was meant as a punishment of 
those who were leaders in the revolt against the mother country. 2. The Mas- 




92 THE REVOLUTION— THE WAR IN NEW ENGLAND. 

sachusetts Bill, which was another destructive blow at the colony, since it 
changed its charter by taking away the right of self-government and placing it 
in the hands of the agents of the king. 3. The Transportation Bill, which 
ordered that all soldiers charged with the crime of murder should be taken 
to England for trial. 4. The Quebec Act, which made the country east of the 
Mississippi and north of the Ohio a part of Canada. These acts were to be 
enforced by the sending of troops to America. 

THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS. 

The result of the passage of these harsli measures was to unite all the colo- 
nies in a determination to resist them to the last. The necessity for consulta- 
tion among the leaders was so apparent that, in response to a general call, the 
First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia, September 5, 1774, all the colo- 
nies being represented except Georgia, which favored the action. 

This Congress adopted a declaration of rights, asserting that they alone 
were empowered to tax themselves, and it named a number of acts of Parliament 
that were a direct invasion of such rights. An address was sent to the king 
and to the people of Great Britain, but none to Parliament, which had deeply 
offended the Americans. The agreement known as the Articles of Association 
jiledged our ancestors not to buy goods or sell them to Great Britain until the 
obnoxious acts were repealed by Parliament. It declared further that, if force 
was used against Massachusetts by England, all the other colonies would help 
her in resisting it. Before adjournment, a new Congress was called to meet in 
the following May. 

The language of the First Continental Congress sounds bold, but the people 
themselves were liolder. Companies of armed men began drilling everywhere, 
and the Americans were eager for a conflict with the detested " red coats." The 
excitement was more intense in Massachusetts than anywhere else, and it was 
plain that the opening gun of the impending Eevolution would be fired upon 
her soil. The affairs of the colony were directed by a provincial congress, 
which collected a quantity of guns and ammunition, and ordered the enrollment 
of 20,000 " minute men," who were to hold themselves ready to answer any call 
at a minute's notice. 

General Gage was the British commander in Boston, and he was so alarmed 
by the aggressive acts of the Americans that he began to throw up fortifications 
on the neck of land connecting the town with the mainland. His alert spies 
notified him that the Americans had collected a quantity of military supplies 
which were stored at Concord, some twenty miles from Boston. Gage ordered 
800 troops to march secretly to Concord and destroy them. 

Guarded as were the movements of the British, the Americans were equally 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 



93 



watchful and discovered them. Paul Revere dashed out of the town on a swift 
horse and spread the news throughout the country. In the gray light of the 
early morning, April 19, 1775, as the soldiers marched into Lexington, on the 
way to Concord beyond, they saw some fifty minute men gathered on the village 
green. Major Pitcairn ordered them to disperse, and they refusing to do so, a 
volley was fired. Eight Americans were killed and a large number wounded, 
the others fleeing before the overwhelming force. Thus was the shot fired that 
" was heard round the world." 

The British advanced to Concord, destroyed the stores there, and then began 
their return to Boston. All the church bells were ringing and the minute men 
were swarming around the troops from every direction. They kept up a con- 
tinuous fire upon tlie soldiers from behind barns, 
houses, hedges, fences, bushes, and from the open 
fields. The soldiers broke into a run, but every 
one would have been shot down had not Gage sent 
reinforcements, which protected the exhausted fu- 
gitives until they reached a point where they were 
under the guns of the men-of-war. In this first 
real conflict of the war, the Americans lost 88 and 
the British 273 in killed, wounded, and missing. 
General Gage was now besieged in Boston by the 
ardent minute men, who in the flush of their patri- 
otism were eager for the regulars to come out and 
give them a chance for a battle. Men mounted on 
swift horses rode at headlong speed through the 
colonies, spreading the stirring news, and hundreds 
of patriots hurried to Boston that they might take part in the war for their 
rights. Elsewhere, the fullest preparations were made for the struggle for inde- 
pendence which all felt had opened. 

As agreed upon, the Second Continental Congress assembled in Philadel- 
phia, May 10, 1775. It included some of the ablest men in America, such as 
George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, 
and Peyton Randolph, of Virginia ; Benjamin Franklin and Robert Morris, of 
Pennsylvania ; John Adams, Samuel Adams, and John Hancock, of Massachu- 
setts ; John Jay, of New York ; and Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth, of 
Connecticut. The former Congress had talked ; the present acted. By general 
consent it was accepted as the governing body of the colonies. The forces 
around Boston were declared to be a Continental army, money was voted to 
support it, and Washington was appointed its commander. 

Meanwhile, British reinforcements under Howe, Clinton, and Burgoyne 




PATEICK HENKY, 

America's greatest orator ; member of the 
Second Continental Congress. 



94 



THE REVOLUTION— THE WAR IN NEW ENGLAND. 



arrived in Boston, swelling Gage's army to 10,000 men. They occupied the 
town, on the peninsula which covers the middle of the harbor, while around 
them on the hills of the mainland was a larger force of Americans, without uni- 
forms, poorly clothed, badly armed and undisciplined, but overflowing with 
patriotism. 




A little to the north of Boston 
the harbor. It has several eleva 
the patriots determined to seize 
a thousand men set out one dark 
lieving Breed's Hill more dc 
he set his men to work upon thai . 
euphonious than "Breed's," an< 
by the former name. Upon it hu 
ment.) 

Although close to the 
ricans toiled through the ^^ --* 
When the sun rose June J 
Boston were astonished to %-je^^ 
ments extending across the 
Americans still working 
tinned withoutinterruption 
ish were seen coming across 
were the regulars, finely 
ed nearly 3,000, who, land 
formed in fine order and 
against the 1,500 patriots, 
behind their intrench 
It was about the middle 
British columns marched 
a heavy fire of cannon and 
commanding the right 
roofs of Boston swarmed 
watching the thrilling ^ g^ 
been fired and four hun 
ashes. 

The Americans behind their breastworks were impatient to open fire, but 
Prescott restrained them until they could " see the whites of the eyes " of their 
enemies. Then in a loud, clear voice he shouted "Fire/" There was an 
outflame of musketry along the front of the intrenchments, and scores of troops 
in the first rank fell. The others hesitated a moment, and then turned and fled 



THE MONUMENT ON 
BUNKER HILL. 



a second peninsula extended into 
tions, one of which. Bunker Hill, 
and fortify. Colonel Prescott with 
night to perform the task, but, be- 
sirable, since it was nearer Boston, 
(The name "Bunker" is more 
the latter is now generally known 
been built the Bunker Hill Monu- 

-- British sentinels, the Ame- 
^j night without discovery. 
^^^^^ 17, 1775, the enemy in. 
see a line of intrench- 
hill above them, with the 
like beavers. They con- 
until noon, when the Brit- 
the harbor in boats. They 
discipJiued, and number- 
ing near Charlestown, 
advanced with precision 
eagerly waiting for them 
ments. 

of the afternoon that the 
to the attack, covered by 
howitzers, Howe himself 
wing. The steeples and 
with people, breathlessly 
sight. Charlestown had 
dred of its houses laid in 



?5 



*3fo 



fa n 
CTQj 






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tr" 



n M 
o nr 



H 
I 
n 

(D 

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H 
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r 
n 

O 

■n 

n 

c 

2 

m 
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11 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 95 

down tlie slope. There their officers formed them into line, and once more they 
advanced up the slope. The delay gave the Americans time to reload, and they 
received the troops with the same withering fire as before, sending them scurry- 
ing to the bottom of the hill, where with great difficulty the daring officers 
formed them into line for a third advance. The British cannon had been 
brought to bear, and the ships and batteries maintained a furious cannonade. 
The patriots were compelled to withdraw from the breastwork outside the fort, 
and the redoubt was attacked at the same moment from three sides. The spec- 
tators were confident of seeing the invaders hurled back again, but saw to their 
dismay a slackening of the fire of the Americans, while the troops, rushing over 
the intrenchments, fought with clubbed muskets. 

At the very moment victory was within the grasp of the patriots, their 
recklessly fired ammunition gave out, and they began sullenly retreating, fighting 
with clubbed weapons. As it was, their retreat would have been cut off, had 
not a company of provincials checked the British until the main body of Ameri- 
cans had fallen back. The battle of Bunker Hill was over and ended with the 
defeat of the patriots, who had lost 150 killed, 270 wounded, and 30 taken pris- 
oners. General Gage gave his loss as 224 killed and 830 wounded. Among the 
killed was Major Pitcairn, the leader of the English troops who fired upon the 
minute men at Lexington. The American Colonel Prescott had his clothing 
torn to shreds by bayonet thrusts, but was not hurt. A British officer, recog- 
nizing the brilliant Warren, snatched a musket from the hands of a soldier and 
shot him dead. 

Prescott and Putnam conducted the retreat by way of Charlestown Neck 
to Prospect Hill, where new fntreuchments commanding Boston were thrown 
up. The British fortified the crest of Breed's Hill. General Gage, in report- 
ing the affair to his government, used the following impressive language : 

"The success, which was very necessary in our present condition, cost us 
dear. The number of killed and wounded is greater than our forces can afford 
to lose. We have lost some extremely good officers. The trials we have had 
show tlie rebels are not the despicable rabble too many have supposed them to 
be, and I find it owing to a military spirit encouraged among them for a few 
years past, joined with uncommon zeal and enthusiasm. They intrench and 
raise batteries ; they have engineers. They have fortified all the heights and 
passes around the town, which it is not impossible for them to occupy. The 
conquest of this country is not easy ; you have to cope with vast numbers. In 
all their wars against the French, they never showed so much conduct, atten- 
tion, and perseverance as they do now. I think it my duty to let you know 
the situation of affairs." 

General Washington, accompanied by his aide, Mifflin, Joseph Reed, hia 



96 



THE REVOLUTION— THE WAR IN NEW ENGLAND. 



1 



military secretary, and General Lee, arrived at Cambridge, July 2, 1775. He 
was joyfully welcomed, and he and his companions remained for a few days the 

guests of President Langdon of Harvard 
College. On the 3th of July, Wash- 
ington's commission was read to a part 
of the army and to the provincial con- 
gress of Massachusetts, and he assumed 

command of 
the Continen- 
tal forces. 

A prodig- 
ious task con- 
fronted him. 
The undisci- 
plined and 
wretchedly 
clad swarm 
came and went 
as they chose, 
none having 
enlisted for 
more than a' 
brief term. 
About 2,000 
were sick or 
absent on fur- 
lough, out of a 
total of 16,771 
soldiers. Sev- 
eral thousand 
more were 
needed to re- 
sist the attack 
that it was be- 
lieved the ene- 
my would soon 

make. But the British had received so severe treatment that it required weeks 
for them to recover, and the summer became oppressively hot. England recalled 
Gage, who sailed for home in October, and was succeeded by Howe. Washing- 
ton closely besieged the enemy in Boston. Throwing up intrenchments, he 




NOMINATION OP VSrASHINGTON AS COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OP 
THE CONTINENTAL ARMY. 



BRITISH EVACUATION OF BOSTON. 



97 



steadily approached the city, and day by day and week by week the situation 
of Howe became more critical. When winter arrived, Washington formed the 
plan of crossing Charles River on the ice, but at a council of war the majority of 
officers declared the scheme too hazardous. 

Washington now decided to fortify and occuj^y Dorchester Heights, which 
would command the city and in a large degree the harbor. General Knox 
brought a number of cannon from Ticonderoga, that were dragged over the 
Green Mountains on sleds. Their arrival did much to cheer the spirits of the 
patriots, who numbered about 14,000. The commander called upon Massachu- 
setts to furnish him with 
8,000 militia, which was 
partly done. 

AVith a view of con- 
cealing his real 2:)ur2)ose, 
Washington kept up a 
bombardment of the British 




FANEUIL HALL, BOSTON, "THE CKADLE OF LIBEKTY 



lines throughout the nights of March 2, 3, and 4, 1776. On the night last 
named, General Thomas moved with 1,200 men from Roxbury and took posses- 
sion undetected of the higher hill which commanded Nook's Hill, nearer the 
city. General Howe was amazed the next morning when he saw what had been 
done, for his position had become untenable. Preparations were made to em- 
bark men in boats and attack the Americans, but a violent storm prevented. 
Then it was agreed that but one thing could be done, and that was to evacuate 

Boston. 

The evacuation took place March 17th. The British destroyed a great deal 
7 



98 THE REVOLUTION— THE WAR IN NEW ENGLAND. 

of i^roperty, but left many supplies behind which fell into the hands of the 
Americans. Washington entered the city on the 19th, the main body of troops 
following the next day. The street through which he rode still bears his name. 
The Massachusetts Legislature voted their thanks to the great man, and Congress 
ordered a commemorative medal in gold and bronze to be struck. This medal 
is now in the possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society. 

When Howe sailed away, he took with him more than a thousand Tories, 
who dared not remain behind and meet their indignant countrymen. Instead 
of going to New York, as he originally intended, the British commander went 
to Halifax, where he waited for reinforcements and gave his thoughts to forming 
campaigns for the conquest of the colonies. 

DISASTROUS INVASION OF CANADA. 

While the siege of Boston was in progress, the Americans fixed ujwn a 
plan for the invasion of Canada. The mistake, which has been repeated more 
than once, was in believing that the Canadians, if given the o^iportunity, would 
make common cause against Great Britain. General Philip Schuyler was placed 
in command of the expedition, but fell ill, and Richard Montgomery, the second 
in command, took charge. He was a valiant Irishman, who had done brilliant 
service in the British army, and was full of ardor for the American cause. 

In several unimportant skirmishes, his men were so insubordinate and 
cowardly that he was disgusted, and expressed his regret that he had ever taken 
command of such a lot of troops. Nevertheless, he pressed on from Ticon- 
deroga, while Schuyler at Albany used every effort to forward him supplies. 
St. John was invested, and the impetuous Ethan Allen, one of his officers, 
hastened to Chambly to raise a force of Canadians. He recruited nearly a 
hundred, and, being joined by a few Americans, set out to capture Montreal. 
The promised reinforcements did not reach him, and, being attacked by a pow- 
erful force, he made the best defense he could, but was finally compelled to 
surrender, with all of his men who had not escaped. Allen was sent to England, 
where he was held a prisoner for a long time. 

The British fort at Chambly was besieged, and surrendered October 18th. 
With its capture, the Americans secured six tons of powder and seventeen 
cannon. The fort of St. John was captured November 3d. By that time. Carle- 
ton, the British commander, was so alarmed that be abandoned Montreal, which 
surrendered on the 20th. Taking possession, Montgomery issued a proclama- 
tion, urging the Canadians to unite with the colonies in the war for independ- 
ence, and to elect representatives to the Continental Congress. 

Benedict Arnold, at the head of eleven hundred men, had withdrawn from 
the camp before Boston, September 13th, and was pressing forward to join Mont- 



i 



DISASTROUS INVASION OF CANADA. 99 

gomery. His course was up the Kennebec, through the gloomy wilderness to 
the Chaudiere, down which he passed to Point Levi. The journey was of the 
most trying nature. The weather became bitterly cold, and the stream was too 
swift at times for them to make headway against it, except by wading the chilly 
current and slowly dragging the boats against it. At other j^laces, even this 
was impossible, and the heavy boats had to be laboriously carried around the 
falls and rapids. 

Finally the time came to leave the river and plunge into the snowy forests, 
where all would have been lost, had not a small party, sent in advance, "blazed" 
the trees. There was plenty of ice in the swamps, but none was strong enough 
to bear their weight, and they sank through to their knees in the half-frozen 
ooze. Toiling doggedly forward, a month passed before they reached Duck 
River, by which time they were in a starving condition. Their j^ro visions gave 
out, and they ate dogs and candles. Some, in their extremity, chewed boiled 
moccasins for the infinitesimal nourishment to be extracted from them. Roots 
and the bark of saplings were devoured, and the wonderful courage of Arnold 
was all that prevented the men from throwing themselves on the ground and 
giving up. So many fell ill and died that Colonel Enos, in command of the 
rear division, turned about with his men and returned to Cambridge. 

Nothing, however, could shake the dauntless courage of Arnold. He 
pushed on, and, obtaining a few cattle, was able to give his men temporary relief. 
Winter was closing in, the weather was growing colder every day, many men 
were barefoot, and without any protection against the icy rain except the branches 
of the leafless trees. The wonder is that the whole band did not perish. 

Finally on the 4th of November, the famishing band caught sight of the 
first house they had seen in weeks. Traveling now became better, and about a 
week later they reached Point Levi, ojoposite Quebec. There they had to wait 
several days to procure canoes, with which the seven hundred men, resembling 
so many shivering tramps, crossed the St. Lawrence and huddled together under 
the Heights of Abraham. 

What earthly hope could such a body of men, without cannon, with injured 
muskets and powder, and cartridges partly spoiled, have in attacking the walled 
town of Quebec ? None, unless the Canadians made common cause with them. 
Following the steep path up which Wolfe and his brave men had climbed seven- 
teen years before, the gaunt Americans struggled after their intrepid leader. 

The next act in the grim comedy was to send forward a flag of truce with 
a demand for the surrender of Quebec. General Carleton must have smiled at 
the grotesqueness of the proceeding, when he sent back a refusal. A few shots 
followed, when Arnold, finding he had not half a dozen rounds of ammunition 
apiece for his men, and was in danger of being attacked himself, retreated to a 



100 THE REVOLUTION— THE WAR IN NEW ENGLAND. 

point twenty miles below Quebec, where Montgomery joined him on the 1st of 
December and assumed command. 

The Americans now numbered 3,000, and had six fieldpieces and five light 
mortars. They set out for Quebec, in front of which they encamped four days 
later. 

Of all the series of disastrous invasions of Canada, none was more dismal 
and pathetic than that of Montgomery and Arnold. The winter was unusually 
severe for a region which is noted for its intensely cold weather. The ground 
froze to the hardness of a rock, and, unable to make any impression in it with 
shovel and pick, the besiegers threw up walls of ice, which the cannon of the 
defenders sent flying into thousands of fragments. The men grew mutinous, 
and, realizing the desperate situation, Montgomery ordered an assault to be 
made on the last day of the year. 

The plan was for the first division under Montgomery to move down the 
river and attack the lower town near the citadel, while the second division under 
Arnold was to pass around the city to the north, assault by way of the St. 
Charles, and unite with Montgomery in his attack upon the Prescott gate. The 
other two divisions were to remain in the rear of the uj^per town and divert the 
garrison by feint attacks. 

A blinding snowstorm was raging and the men could hardly distinguish 
one another. Success depended upon surprise, but the defenders had learned of 
the intended attack, and Montgomeiy had hardly started when the battery 
delivered a fire which instantly killed him and both his aides. Their deaths 
threw his men into a panic, and they fled in such haste that they escaped the 
fate of their leaders. 

Meanwhile, Arnold had moved, as agreed upon, with his division along 
the St. Charles, the men bending their heads to the icy blast and protecting 
their muskets under their coats. As soon as the garrison caught sight of the 
dim figures they opened fire, but the Americans pressed on and carried the first 
barricade. Arnold, however, received a severe wound in the leg, and, suffering 
great pain, was carried to the rear, Daniel Morgan, one of the bravest officers 
of the Kevolution, succeeded to the command, and, with his riflemen at his heels, 
was the first to climb the ladders placed against the barricade. Two musket- 
balls grazed the leader's face, which was scorched by the flash, and he was 
knocked down ; but he instantly sprang to his feet and called upon his men to 
follow him. They did so with such dash that the enemy took refuge in the 
houses on both sides of the street. 

But for the disaster that had overtaken Montgomery, Quebec probably 
would have been captured, but Morgan's command was in darkness, the driving 
«oow interfered with firing, and they knew nothing of the town. Only a few 



i 



DISASTROUS INVASION OF CANADA. 



101 



of the troops found the next barricade, and, when they climbed the ladders, 
wete confronted by leveled muskets whose fire was very destructive. Not only 




ST. PADL'S CHURCH, NEW YORK, WHERE MONTGOMERY WAS BURIED. 

chat, but the British, who had taken refuge in the houses in the streets, kept up 

their firing. 

The Americans fought for a long time with the greatest heroism, but after 



102 THE REVOLUTION— THE WAR IN NEW ENGLAND. 

the loss of sixty, the remainder, with the .exception of a few that had fled, were 
obliged to surrender. The fragments of the helpless army fell again under the 
command of the wounded Arnold, who, despite the hopelessness of the attempt, 
still pressed the siege of Quebec. He had sent an urgent message to Schuyler 
for reinforcements. They straggled through the wintry forests to his aid, some 
3,000 arriving in the course of the winter. Carleton, who was too wise to ven- 
ture out on the plain as Montcalm had done, felt secure behind the walls, and 
gave little heed to the ragged swarm huddled together in front of the town. 

General Wooster brought fresh troo^Js in March and assumed command. 
He lacked military skill, and two months later was succeeded by General 
Thomas. The latter saw that he had no more than a thousand effective troops 
under his control, and decided to withdraw the ill-starred expedition. Carle- 
ton, who had received large reinforcements, attacked him on his retreat and 
cajDtured a hundred prisoners and nearly all the stores. The sufierings of the 
Americans were now aggravated by smallpox, which broke out among them 
and caused many deaths. General Thomas being one of the victims. General 
Sullivan succeeded him in command. He lost a number of prisoners and re- 
treated to Ticonderoga and Crown Point, thus bringing the disastrous expedition 
to a close in the month of June, 1776. 

It is jiroper that tribute should be given to the humanity of Carleton, the 
British commander. He caused search to be made in the snow for the body of 
Montgomery, and, when it was found, it was brought into the city and buried 
with the honors of war. Other parties scoured the woods for the suffering 
Americans, who were placed in the hospital and received tender care. Those 
who voluntarily came in were allowed to go as soon as they were strong enough 
to travel, and to the needy ones Carleton furnished money. A half-century 
later the remains of Montgomery were brought to New York and deposited 
beneath the monument in St. Paul's churchyard. 




CHAPTER V. 



THE REVOLUTION (CONTINUED).— THE WAR IN 
THE MIDDLE STATES AND ON THE SEA. 

Declaration of Independence — The American Flag — Battle of Long Island — Washington's Retreat Through 
the Jerseys — Trenton and Princeton — In Winter Quarters — Lafayette — Brandywine and Germantown 
— At Valley Forge — Burgoyne's Campaign — Fort Schuyler and Bennington — Bemis Heights and 
Stillwater — The Conway Cabal — Aid from France — Battle of Monmouth — Jlolly Pitcher — Failure of 
French Aid — Massacre at Wyoming — Continental Money — Stony Point — Treason of Arnold — Paul 
Jones' Great Victory. 

DIFFERENT THEATRES OF WAR. 

The Revolution, beginning in New England, gradually moved southward. 
After the first few conflicts it jiassed into the Middle States, which for nearly 
three years became the theatre of the war. Then it shifted to the South, which 
witnessed its triumphant close. 

It has been shown that, despite this change of scene, the colonies were 
ardently united from the beginning in the struggle for independence. It should 
be remembered, however, that, for a considerable time after the beginning of 
actual fighting, the Americans were not struggling so much to gain their liberty 
as to compel England to do them justice. But for the stubbornness of George 
III., who at times was insane, the reasonable prayers of the patriots would have 
been granted, and our ancestors would have been retained as subjects of the 
crown. 

But the most far-seeing of Americans comprehended the inevitable end» 
which must be subjection to tyranny or independence. The trend of events so 

(103) 



104 



WAR IN THE CUDDLE STATES AND ON SEA. 



clearly indicated this that steps were taken looking toward the utter and final 
separation of the colonies from the mother country. 

Congress was still in session in Philadelphia, and early in June the ques- 
tion of declaring American independence was brought forward by Eichard 



Henry Lee, of Virginia, who 
seconded by John Adams, of 
the colonies free and indepen 
was of so momentous impor 
long and earnestly by the 
there was no doubt that definite 
place, a committee was appointed 
tion of Independence. The mem 
ferson, John Adams, Benjamin 
man, and E,. R. Livingston. The 
the work of Thomas Jefferson, 
members being so slight that it 




introduced a resolution, 
Massachusetts, declaring 
dent States. The matter 
tance that it was debated 
able members, but since 
action would soon take 
to draw up the Declara- 
bers were Thomas Jef- 
Fraiikliu, Roger Sher- 
immortal document was 
the assistance of the other 
is not worth mention. 



INDEPENDENCE HALL, PHILADELPHIA. 

(Washinglou's statue in front.) 



The debate over the Declaration, after it was read to Congress, was earnest, 
and considerable difference of opinion developed, but on the 4th of July it was 
adopted and signed by every member present, excepting one, while the absent 
delegates afterward attached their signatures. Thornton, the member from New 



THE AMERICAN FLAG. 



105 



Hampshire, signed it precisely four months after its adoption. John Hancock, 
being President of the Congress, placed his name first in his large, bold hand, 
and it approj^riately stands by itself. 

As soon as the Declaration "was adopted, it was ordered that copies of it 
should be sent to the various assemblies, conventions, and committees or councils 
of safety, to the commanding officers of the Continental troops, and that it 
should be proclaimed in each of the United States and at the head of the army. 

It was received everywhere with delight. Bells were rung, bonfires kin- 
dled, and eloquent addresses 
made. The old Liberty 
Bell, still carefully preserved 
in Independence Hall, sent 
out its note over the city and 
across the Delaware. How 
appropriate is the inscription 
on the bell, cast many years 
before anyone dreamed of 
the American Revolution: 
"Proclaim liberty through- 
out all the land unto all the 
inhabitants thereof." 

THE AMERICAN FLAG. 

Now that the nation was 
born, it required a flag under 
which to fight for its inde- 
pendence. Various patterns 
had been used. The one 
first raised over the Ameri- 
can troops at Boston con- 
tained thirteen stripes, as at 
present, but, in place of 
white stars in a blue field, 
it displayed a union of the crosses of St. Andrew and St. George. Numerous 
designs were submitted to Congress, but the first recognized Continental standard 
was that raised by Washington, January 2, 1776. By resolution of Congress, 
June 14, 1777, this was replaced by the pattern as it is to-day, excepting in the 
number of stars. The rule is that whenever a new State is admitted to the 
Union its representative star shall appear in the blue field of the banner on 
the 4th of July following its admission. 




THE LIBERTY BELL, AS EXHIBITED AT THE NEW 
ORLEANS EXPOSITION. 



106 WAR IN THE MIDDLE STATES AND ON SEA. 

Despite the enthusiasm with which the Declaration of Independence was 
received everywhere, the affairs of the States (as they must now be called) were 
by no means encouraging. Montgomery and Arnold were engaged upon their 
disastrous invasion of Canada, and the city of New York was in grave peril 
from the enemy. Moreover, England was not to be frightened by the Declara- 
tion of Independence. The angered king and Parliament put forth more 
strenuous efibrts than before to conquer their rebellious subjects. 

GENERAL LEE IN NEW YOEK. 

When Washington entered Boston after the British evacuation, he immedi- 
ately sent six of his best regiments to New York, which he was convinced would 
soon be attacked. General Charles Lee had been placed in command there and 
Washington intended to follow. The people in New York were alive to their 
danger and Lee did his utmost to strengthen the defenses. An intrenched 
camp was laid out on Columbia Heights, on the Brooklyn side, to guard the 
town against an attack from the sea, and another intrenched camip was erected 
on the New York side, between Fulton and Wall Streets. This was named Fort 
Stirling and was an important position, since it permitted the batteries to sweep 
the channel, or, in case of the occupation of the city by an enemy, they could be 
bombarded. A fort was built opposite Hell Gate to defend an approach by way 
of the Sound, while works were jilaced below Canal Street to cover the river. 
There were no fortifications, however, on the Jersey shore. 

Lee ruled with a high hand in New York, showing no consideration to the 
Tories and making himself highly popular with the revolutionary party. Hav- 
ing been placed in command of the southern department, he left New York, and 
Lord Stirling (an American who inherited his title) succeeded him. He put 
forth every effort to make the city impregnable, following the advice and orders 
of Washington, who knew the necessity of such rigorous measures. 

BRAVE DEFENSE OF CHARLESTON. 

The British plan of campaign was to capture the city of New York, over- 
run the State, push the war in the South, and invade the Northern States from 
Canada. The South Carolinans, as soon as they heard the news of Lexington, 
began fortifying the harbor of Charleston. These included the barricading of 
the streets, in case of the capture of the harbor defenses. General Lee, as soon 
as he arrived, inspected the defenses and gave it as his opinion that they were 
not strong enough to resist the British fleet and the forts would be knocked into 
ruins. 

"Then," said Colonel Moultrie, "we'll fight behind the ruins." 

" You have no means of retreat." 



J 

I 



4\ 



SERGEANT JASPERS EXPLOIT. 



107 



" Since we shall not retreat, no means are needed." 

Lee, although still apprehensive, yielded to the bravery of the defenders 
and agreed to do his utmost to assist them in their defense. 



On the 17th of June, 
landed with the inten 
Sullivan's Island, but 
too deep. Delays fol 
the fleet under Admiral 
on the fort. The pal 
was composed were the 
since they were too 
and seemed to absorb the 
them. The re 
great havoc 
the battle raged fiercely 
When everything 
blinding smoke, the flag 
away by a cannon ball. 



when Sergeant William 



agamst 
wrought 




2,500 British troops 
tion of wading across to 
found the supposed ford 
lowed, and on the 28th 
Parker opened the attack 
metto logs of which it 
best possible material, 
spongy to be shattered, 
ponderous balls hurled 
turn fire of the garrison 
among the vessels, and 
for hours. 

was obscured by the 
staff of the fort was cut 
It had scarcely fallen, 
Jasper sprang through 



THE STATUE OP LIBERTY ON GOVBRNOK'S ISLAND, IN NEW YORK HARBOR. 

(Presented to the United States by Bartholdi ) 

one of the embrasures, caught up the flag, climbed the wall amid a frightful 
fire, waved it defiantly at the enemy, fastened it to a pike, fixed it in place, and 
then coolly leaped down among his comrades. 

That night Admiral Parker withdrew his fleet, havmg lost more than two 



lOS WAR IN THE MIDDLE STATES AND ON SEA. 

hundred in killed and wounded, while of the Americans only ten had been killed 
and twenty-nine wounded. The triumph of the patriots was absolute, and General 
Lee in a letter to Washington wrote that he was enraptured by the coolness and 
bravery of the defenders. In honor of the gallant conduct of Colonel Moultrie, 
the fort was given his name, and the whole country was inspired by what was 
certainly one of the most remarkable achievements of the Eevolution. 

AN UNSATISFACTORY SITUATION. 

The progress of the war, however, was less satisfactory in the North. On 
the same day that the British attacked Fort Moultrie, a i^art of the fleet from 
Nova Scotia appeared off Sandy Hook, with the purpose of attacking the city. 
Before Lee left for the South, he expressed the opinion that no fleet could cap- 
ture it, but Washington, after arriving and insj^ecting the defenses, failed to 
share his confidence, and strengthened the works in every way possible. 

Believing Governor's Island a place of strategic importance. General Put- 
nam had seized it before the arrival of Washington, and threw up a number of 
breastworks, occupying also Red Hook on Long Island. Then Paulus Hook 
(now Jersey City) was fortified and hulks were sunk in the channel between 
Governor's Island and the Battery. The erection of Fort Lee, up the Hudson, 
was begun during the summer, on the Palisades, while Fort Washington was 
built on the New York side. By the time the fleet arrived, about a. hundred 
cannon and mortars were ready for service. 

GENERAL HOWE's FIRST MOVE. 

Governor Tryon, formerly of North Carolina, was now Governor of New 
York and a bitter Tory. There were thousands who thought like him, and 
they welcomed General Howe, whose intention was to land on Long Island, but 
the strong defenses of the Americans caused him to disembark his troops on 
Staten Island. Admiral Howe, brother of the general, arrived soon after, and, 
in August, the Hessians swelled the British force to 32,000 men. The Hessians 
were natives of Hesse-Cassel, Germany, and were hired by England. De Heis- 
ter, their commander, was a veteran of many campaigns, and they formed fully 
one-fourth of the enemy's forces. Compared with this formidable array, the 
Americans presented a pitiful plight. They were scarcely one-half as numer- 
ous, were poorly armed and disciplined, most of them without uniforms, while 
many were lacking in courage, as their commander was to learn to his cost. 

General Howe's first move was to send two ships and three tenders up the 
Hudson, aiming to cut off Washington's communication with the country and 
Canada. At the same time, he wished to take soundings of the river and 
encourage the Tories, who were more plentiful than would be supposed. Several 



AMERICAN DEFEAT ON LONG ISLAND. 



109 



weeks were spent in this work, during which one of the tenders was burned hy 
the Americans. 

AMERICAN DEFEAT ON LONG ISLAND. 

In the latter part of August, the British troops were moved from Staten 
Island to Gravesend Bay on Long Island, and it was evident that Howe, 
instead of bombarding New York, meant to advance ujjon it from across Long 
Island. In anticipation of this movement, Washington had stationed General 
Greene's division at Brooklyn. Unfortunately that admirable officer was ill, 
and General Sullivan took his place. He boastiugly declared that no force of 




AN OLD NEW YORK MANSION. 



the British could carry his fortification, and, indeed, was so foolishly confident, 
that Washington superseded him with Israel Putnam, who was no better, for 
he left the pass on the British right unguarded. Quick to discover the over- 
sight, the enemy took advantage of it, and in the battle of Long Island, fought 
August 27th, the Americans suffered disastrous defeat. Sullivan was caught be- 
tween two fires, and, fighting with the energy of desperation, most of his men 
cut their way through the English line and reached Brooklyn. Lord Stirling's 
division was surprised in the same manner and few escaped the enemy. By 
noon the victory of the British was complete. 



no WAR IN THE MIDDLE STATES AND ON SEA. 

Washington with deep anguish witnessed the overwhelming disaster. He 
hurriedly crossed to Brooklyn and sent forward every man that could be spared, 
but nothing availed to check the panic of the rest of the forces, who were 
chased to the foot of the lines in Brooklyn. Howe was so confident of bagging 
the whole lot that, in order to save loss of life, he resorted to regular 
approaches. 

The situation of the Americans could not have been more critical, for, when 
the British fleet passed up the river, their supplies would be cut ofi". Three 
hundred j^atriots had been killed and wounded, and among the prisoners were 
Lord Stirling and General Sullivan. The Americans in Brooklyn numbered 
10,000, while the enemy were twice as numerous. 

When it looked as if all hope was gone, the elements came to the relief of 
the sorely beset patriots. A violent head-wind held back the ships, and a 
tremendous downpour of rain on the 28th and 29th suspended operations. It 
was so clear that the only course open was to evacuate Brooklyn, that the work 
was begun and pressed incessantly for thirteen hourSj the rain and fog hiding 
the movement from Howe. Too weak to hold the city against him, there was 
nothing left to do but to retreat, future movements being guided by events. 

CAPTURE OF NEW YORK BY THE BRITISH. 

Four ships ascended the river, September 13th, and anchored a mile above 
the city. Others followed. The movement, however, was a feint, intended to 
cover General Howe's attack by land. Before the latter, the Americans made 
such a cowardly flight that Washington and other ofiicers were filled with irre- 
strainable rage, struck many with the flat of their swords, and threatened to run 
them through. But nothing could check the panic, until they joined the main 
body at Harlem. In this manner, the city of New York fell into the hands of 
the British, who captured 300 prisoners, a number of cannon, and a large 
quantity of stores. The American army pulled itself together on Harlem 
Heights, while the enemy encamped in front, their right resting on the East 
Eiver and their left on the Hudson, with both flanks supported by armed ships. 

NATHAN HALE, THE " MARTYR SPY." 

While General Howe occupied New York, one of the most pathetic inci- 
dents of the Revolution occurred. It was of the highest importance that 
Washington should gain information of the intentions and the strength of the 
enemy. In order to do so, Captain Nathan Hale, of Connecticut, voluntarily 
entered the British lines disguised as a spy. He did his work with shrewdness 
and skill, but on his return, and when about to re-enter the American lines, he 
was recognized and captured When accused, he admitted his identity and 



THE DARK DAYS OF THE REVOLUTION. Ill 

business, and without trial was condemned to death. He was brutally treated 
by the provost-marshal, who refused him a light to read his Bible, and destroyed 
the letters he wrote to his mother. He was hanged the morning after his cap- 
ture, his last words being : " My only regret is that I have but one life to give 
to my country." 

The months passed without any important movement on either side. Howe 
made careful preparations and Washington closely watched him. The Conti- 
nental army was divided into four divisions, commanded respectively by Generals 
Heath, Sullivan, Lincoln, and Lee (who had lately returned from the South). 
At a council of war it was decided that Harlem Heights could not be held 
against the enemy, but at the urgent request of General Greene, a strong garri- 
son was left in Fort Washington. It numbered 3,000, and was under the 
command of Colonel Robert Magaw of Philadelphia. 

CONTINUED RETREAT OF THE AMERICANS. 

In accordance with the plan agreed upon, Washington fell slowly back and 
was attacked at White Plains. He inflicted severe loss on the enemy, but con- 
tinued to retreat, whereupon Howe turned back and assailed Fort Washington 
with such an overwhelming force that Colonel Magaw surrendered. 

Washington's fear now was that the British would press a campaign against 
Philadelphia, the capital. Accordingly, he crossed to New Jersey, and, with 
General Greene, took position at Fort Lee. The enemy threatened it with such 
a large force that it was abandoned and he began his retreat through New Jer- 
sey, with Cornwallis, the ablest of the British generals, in close pursuit. The 
two armies were frequently so near each other that they exchanged shots. 

THE DARK DAYS OF THE REVOLUTION. 

The " dark days " of the Revolution had come. Winter was at hand, and 
hundreds of the ragged Continentals, as they tramped over the frozen roads, left 
the bloody prints of their bare feet on the ground. Many lost heart, and the 
desertions were so numerous that it looked as if the whole army would crumble 
to pieces. 

The remark has often been made of Washington that he never won a battle, 
but the wonder is that he did so well with the miserable force under his com- 
mand. His greatness, however, rests upon a much broader foundation. He, far 
more than any other man, saw the end from the beginning, and embodied within 
himself the spirit of the struggle for American independence. He was the 
Revolution. Had he been killed, the struggle would have stopped, for no one 
could have been his successor. Subjected to trials whose exasperating nature it 
is impossible for us to comprehend, he never lost heart. He pressed forward 



112 WAR IN THE MIDDLE STATES AND ON SEA. 

with sulDlime faith, tliat no disaster, defeat, or misfortune could weaken. More- 
over, let it not be forgotten that he fought from the opening to the close of the 
struggle without accepting a cent in the way of payment. 

When Washington reached the little town of Trenton, he was joined by 
Stirling, the junction raising the force to 5,000 men. General Lee, disobeying 
orders, marched so tardily that he was captured at Basking Ridge, N. J., by a 
company of British horse. Investigations that have since been made leave no 
doubt that Lee purposely allowed himself to be taken, and that while in the 
enemy's hands he offered to do all he could in the way of betrayal of his coun- 
try. Washington crossed the Delaware into Pennsylvania, just as Cornwallis 
entered the upper end of the town. 

The great man, knowing the universal depression, saw that a blow must be 
Btruck to raise the drooping spirits of his countrymen. Otherwise the struggle 
would collapse from sheer desj^air. As for the enemy, they gave scarcely a 
thought to the shivering ragamuffins on the other side of the river. The Hes- 
sian Commander, Colonel Ball, had occupied the town with his men, and they 
prepared to enjoy life to the full. Ball drank toddy, smoked, and played cards, 
while the wintry winds roared outside. Perha2)s a feeling akin to pity moved 
him when he thought of the starving, freezing Continentals who were foolish 
enough to rebel against the rule of the great and good King George III. 

BATTLE OF TRENTON. 

Washington determined to attack the Hessians in Trenton. He divided his 
army into three divisions, sending one to Bristol, opposite Burlington, another 
remained opposite Trenton, while he himself marched several miles up stream 
to a point since known as Washington's Crossing. 

The movements down the river were to be directed against the enemy's de- 
tachments at Bordentown, Burlington, and Mount Holly, but the stream was so 
choked with masses of floating ice that neither division was able to force its way * f 
over. Washington, with 2,500 of the best officers and men in the army, crossed 
the stream in the face of a driving storm of snow and sleet, and, reaching the 
village of Birmingham, several miles inland, divided his force. Sullivan took 
the road which runs close to and parallel with the river, while Washington, 
with Greene, followed the Scotch road. The latter joins the upper part of the 
town, while the river road enters the lower end. The plan was for the two 
divisions to strike Trenton at the same time and attack the Hessians in front 
and rear. It was hardly light on the morning succeeding Cliristmas, 1776, when 
Washington drove in the sentinels and advanced rapidly in the direction of 
Sullivan, the report of whose guns showed that he had arrived on time and wm 
tigorously pressing matters. 



BATTLE OF TRENTON. 



113 



The rattle of musketry and the boom of cannon roused the startled Hes- 
sians, who made the best defense possible. Colonel Rail leaped from his bed, 
and, hastily donning his clothes, strove to collect and form his men. While 
doing so he was 
mortally wounded. 
The moment quickly 
came when his situa- 
tion was hopeless. 
Supported on either 
side by a sergeant. 
Rail walked pain- 
fully forward to j 
where Washington ' 
was seated on his 
horse, and, handing ' 
his sword to him 
asked that mercy 
should be shown his ^ ' 
men. Washington 
assured him his re- 
quest was unneces- 
sary. Rail was car- 
ried to a building, 
where, as he lay on 
the bed, he was vis- 
ited by Washington, 
who expressed his 
symjiathy for his 
sufferings, which soon 
were terminated by 
death. 

The battle of 
Trenton, as it is 
known in history, was remarkable in more than one respect. The Americans 
captured 950 prisoners, six guns, a large number of small arms, killed twenty 
and wounded nearly a hundred of the enemy. Of the Americans, four were 
wounded and two killed, and it is probable that these deaths were due to the 
extreme cold rather than the aim of the Hessians, whose work is very suggestive 
of that of the Spaniards in the late war. 

The moral effect of the victory, however, was aknost beyond estimate. 




WASHINGTON CKOSSING THE DELAVFARE. 



114 WAR IN THE MIDDLE STATES AND ON SEA. 

The threatening clouds that had so long darkened the land were scattered, and 
the glorious sun of hope burst through and cheered all. The triumi^h may be 
summed up in the expression that it marked the " turning of the tide." Re- 
verses were yet waiting for the Americans, but the war for independence was 
steadily to advance to its triumphant conclusion. 

THE EFFECT OF THE VICTOEY. 

The situation of Washington at Trenton, however, was critical. Corn- 
wallis with his powerful force was at Princeton, ten miles distant, and was sure 
to advance against him as soon as he learned of the reverse at Trenton. Wash- 
ington, therefore, recrossed the Delaware on the same day of the victory, with 
his prisoners and captured war material. One result was that the British, as 
soon as they learned what had taken place, abandoned South Jersey. 

Washington remained three days in Pennsylvania, when he again crossed 
the Delaware and re-entered Trenton. More than 3,000 reinforcements joined 
him, and 1,400 New England soldiers, whose terms of enlistment were expiring, 
were so inspired by the victory that they volunteered for six weeks longer. 
Robert Morris, to whom we have referred as the financier of the Revolution, 
raised |50,000 in specie and sent it to Washington to be used in paying the 
troops, who very sorely needed it. 

As soon as Cornwallis was told by his scouts that Washington had returned 
to Trenton, he advanced against him with a force of 7,000 men, determined to 
wipe out the disgrace of a few days before. This was on the 2d of January, 
1777. Greene held the British commander in check until the close of the day, 
when he was able to drive the Americans to the eastern shore of the Assunpink 
Creek, which runs through the middle of the town and was spanned by a wooden 
bridge. There was brisk fighting at this bridge, but the cannon of Washington 
were so effective that the British troops gave up the attempt to force a passage 
until the morning of the following day. 

Washington's critical situation. 

The two armies encamped in sight of each other on opposite banks of the 
Assunpink, their camp-fires and sentinels in plain sight. The situation of the 
American army could not have been more critical. Behind it was the Delaware 
filled with floating ice and in front the superior army of Cornwallis, confident 
of capturing Washington and his forces on the morrow. 

But when the raw wintry morning dawned, Cornwallis was astounded to 
hear the booming of cannon in the direction of Princeton, ten miles behind him. 
Washington had withdrawn his entire force, and, reaching the college town by 
a roundabout course, was driving the British troops before him. The chagrined 



BATTLE OF PRINCETON. 



115 



and angered Cornwallis hurried to Princeton in order to avert the threatened 
disaster. 

BATTLE OF PRINCETON. 

But Washington had already won a victory, scattering the British forces 
right and left. Although he lost a number of brave officers and men, he killed 




sixty of the enemy 
and captured 250 pris- 
oners. When Corn- 
wallis arrived the Americans were 
gone, and the British troops hurried 
to Brunswick (now New Brunswick) to 
protect the stores there. Washington 
withdrew to Morristown, where he 
went into winter quarters and re- 
mained until May, much of the time 
being devoted to making forays upon 
the enemy, who now and then retali- 
ated in kind. 

Washington left Morristown on the 28th of May, aware thftt Howe in- 
tended to make a campaign against Philadelphia. There was considerable 
manoeuvring by the two armies, Howe trying to flank Washingt-in, who was 
too alert to be entrapped, and no material advantage was gained by either side. 



"GIVE THEM VSTATTS, BOYS!" 

The spirit shown by our sturdy patriots is well illustrated 
by the story of the minister, who. when in one battle there 
was a lack of wadding, brought out an armful of hymn books 
and exclaimed : ' ' Give them Watts, boys ! " 



116 WAR IN THE MIDDLE STATES AND ON SEA. 

About this time a number of foreign officers joined the American army. 
The most distinguished was the Marquis de Lafayette, who served without pay 
and won the gratitude of the whole country because of his devotion to the cause 
of American independence and his intimate friendship with Washington. 

Meanwhile, being driven out of New Jersey, the British pushed their cam- 
paign against Philadelphia by way of the Chesapeake. In August, 1777, Sir 
William Howe sailed from New York with 16,000 troops, and, on the 24th, 
reached the head of Elk River in Maryland. At Brandywine, on the 11th of 
September, the American army was defeated with severe loss, Lafayette being 
among the wounded. Washington entered Philadelj^hia the next day, and, 
crossing the Schuylkill, posted his troops on the eastern bank of the river, with 
detachments at the ferries where it was thought the enemy were likely to attempt 
to cross. General Wayne concealed himself and 1,500 men in the woods, in- 
tending to attack the British in the rear, but a Tory betrayed his presence to the 
enemy, who in a furious assault slew 300 of his men. This disaster is known 
in history as the Paoli Massacre. 

BRITISH OCCUPATION OF PHILADELPHIA. 

Howe, having gained control of the Schuylkill, crossed with his army, and, 
advancing to Germantown, took j^ossession of Philadelphia on the 27th of Sep- 
tember. The main body remained in Germantown, while the American army, 
now reinforced to 11,000, were on the eastern side of the Schuylkill, eighteen 
miles distant. Howe was engaged in reducing the forts on the Delaware to open 
a passage for his fleet, when Washington advanced against the force at German- 
town, hoping to surprise it. He would have succeeded, but for several obstacles 
wholly unexpected. The stone building known as the "Chew House" offered a 
stubborn resistance and defied the cannon fired against it. The delay caused by 
the attempt to reduce it gave the enemy time to rally. Besides, the dense fog 
disorganized the attack, and more than once bodies of Americans fired into one 
another. On the verge of victory, a retreat was ordered and the Americans fell 
back, after having suffered a loss of 1,200 men. Congress on the approach of 
the enemy fled to the little town of York, Pennsylvania. 

WASHINGTON AT VALLEY FORGE. 

While the British were holding high revel in Philadelphia, the Continentals 
shivered and starved at Valley Forge, twenty miles away. Thousands of the 
men were without shoes and stockings. In each log hut were twelve privates, 
who had scarcely any bedding, and who kept from freezing at night by the 
mutual warmth of their bodies. The farmers of the neighborhood were so un- 
patriotic that Washington was often compelled to take straw and grain from 



i 



WASHINGTON AT VALLEY FORGE. 



117 



them by force, giving in return an order upon the government for the property 
thus used. It is said that Isaac Potts, a Quaker at whose house Washington 
made his headquarters, was passing through the woods one day, when he heard 
the voice of some one in prayer. Peering among the trees he saw Washington on 




his knees, beseeching 
the struggle for liberty, 
to his home and related 
he added that he could 
success of the Ameri 
Washington praying 
It has been shown 
important campaigns 
was that of invading 
ada. If successful, New 
off from the other States 
Formidable prepara 
this movement. An 
7,000 British and Hes 
to a corps of artillery, 
command of General 
accompanied by several 
who had crossed the 



of witnessing the over 



■WASHINGTON AT VALLEY FOBOE. 



the help of heaven in 
When Potts returned 
the incident to his wife, 
no longer doubt the 
cans, since he had heard 
for it. 

that one of the most 
planned by the British 
New York from Can- 
England would be cut 
and forced to submit, 
tions were made for 
army of more than 
sian troops, in addition 
was placed under the 
Burgoyne, who was 
members of Parliament, 
ocean for the pleasure 



throw of the rebellious 
Americans. The route was from Canada by way of Lake Champlain to Albany, 
where the army was to be joined by a strong force to be sent up the Hudson 
from New York. Clinton failed to carry out his part, because of the delay in 



118 WAR IN THE MIDDLE STATES AND ON SEA. 

sending to him from London a detailed account of the intended plan of cam- 
paign. 

A CLEVER STEATAGEM. 

At Crown Point, Burgoyne was joined by a number of Indian allies, a pro- 
ceeding which greatly incensed the patriots. It was arranged that another body 
of British troops under Colonel St. Leger, including Indians and Tories, were 
to ascend the St. Lawrence to Lake Ontario, and advance across the State by 
way of the Mohawk to Albany. Carrying out this programme, St. Leger 
invested Fort Schuyler at the head of the Mohawk, with a force of 1,800 men. 
While General Herkimer was hurrying with some militia to the relief of the 
garrison, he was ambuscaded by a detachment of British and Indians and killed, 
but an advance from the fort drove oif his assailants. St. Leger persisted in his 
siege of the fort, and Benedict Arnold marched with a brigade to attack him. 
His force, however, was so weak that he saw the folly of assault, and had 
recourse to an ingenious and successful stratagem. He sent an underwitted-boy, 
who had been arrested as a Tory, into the British camp with the story that the 
reinforcements just arrived for the Americans numbered several thousand, the 
fable being confirmed shortly after by an Indian scout. St. Leger was so 
frightened that he fled to Canada, leaving his tents and most of his military 
stores. 

The Americans abandoned Fort Ticonderoga before the advance of Bur- 
goyne, who reached Fort Edward, while General Schuyler crossed the Hudson 
and assumed position at Saratoga. Burgoyne crossed the river on the loth and 
14th of September, and General Gates, lately appointed to the command of the 
northern department, advanced toward the enemy and encamped a few miles 
north of Stillwater. On the night of the 17th, the two armies were within four 
miles of each other, and, two days later, Burgoyne attacked Gates. The loss on 
each side was severe, but the result was indecisive. 

A danger of another character threatened the invading army. Provisions 
and supplies were running out, and it was impossible to obtain more. No help 
arrived from Clinton, the desertions were numerous, and, realizing his desperate 
situation, Burgoyne determined to drive the Amei'icans from their jjosition on 
the left and then retreat to Canada. He made a determined attempt, but was 
defeated with the loss of several hundred men, including a number of his best 
ofiicers, nine pieces of artillery, and the encampment and equipage of a Hessian 
brigade. 

SURRENDER OF BURGOYNE. 

General Gates now disposed his forces so as almost completely to surround 
Burgoyne, who called a council of war, at which it was agreed that nothing was 
left for them but to capitulate. Accordingly, October 17, 1777, he surrendered 



1 



AID FROM FRANCE. 119 

his army to General Gates. This consisted of 5,763 officers and men, including 
the disappointed members of Parliament. All the Indians having fled, none 
was left of them to surrender. The spoils of war included a fine train of 
artillery of forty-two pieces, 5,000 muskets, and a vast quantity of ammunition 
and stores. The prisoners were treated with great kindness, their captors shar- 
ing their food with them. 

The news of the loss of one of her most important armies caused dismay in 
England and unbounded rejoicing in America. It was the climax of the 
triumph at Trenton, and renewed hope thrilled the country from New England 
to Georgia. 

THE CONWAY CABAL. 

Congress awarded a gold medal to Gates for his capture of Burgoyne, and 
he was placed at the head of the new board of war. He was pufied up over his 
victory, for which most of the credit was due to Schuyler and Arnold. Find- 
ing congenial spirits in General Mifflin and an Irishman named Conway, 
both members of the board, including also General Charles Lee, who had been 
exchanged, a plot was formed for displacing Washington and putting Gates in 
supreme command of military affairs. The " Conway Cabal " utterly failed, for 
there were precious few in the country who did not appreciate the lofty char- 
acter of Washington, and none except the plotters felt sympathy with any 
attempt to dim the lustre of the name that will always be among the brightest 
in history. 

AID FROM FRANCE. 

One of the immeasurable advantages that followed the capture of Burgoyne 
was our alliance with France. That country sympathized with us from the 
first, though her traditional hatred of England had much to do with the senti- 
ment, but hitherto her assistance had been secret. She wished a good pretext 
for coming out openly, and this was furnished by the capture of Burgoyne. 
Franklin was in France as our representative, and his quaint wit and homely 
wisdom made him very popular at the gay court. He urged the claims of the 
United States so forcibly that the king yielded, and concluded a treaty, February 
6, 1778, by which the independence of the United States was acknowledged and 
relations of reciprocal friendship formed with our country. This was the first 
treaty made by the United States with a foreign country. France agreed to 
send a fleet of sixteen war-vessels, under D'Estaing, and an army of 4,000 men 
to our assistance. Great Britain at once declared war against France, and 
offered to give the United States freedom from taxation and representation in 
Parliament if they would join in the hostilities against her old enemy. The 
Americans were incapable of so perfidious a course, and were now fully deter- 
mined on securing their independence. Spain joined France, in 1779, in the 



120 



WAR IN THE .MIDDLE STATES AND ON SEA. 



war against Great Britain (because of the relations of the ruling families), and 
Holland for commercial reasons united with them in 1780. Thus Great Britain 
soon found her hands full. 

Congress decided, while Washington was at Valley Forge, that the army 
should cons'st of 40,000 foot, besides artillery and horse. Washington had 
12,000, while the total American force under arms was barely 15,000. At the 
same time the British had 30,000 troops in New York and PhiladeliDhia, besides 
3,700 in Rhode Island. 

EVACUATION OF PHILADELPHIA. 

The British army occuj^ied Philadelphia from September, 1777, until June 







, . Wf 

r '- -' '' 1 ■ / 

H i^ t ]j 












/ 



AN OLD COLONIAL HOUSE OF GEBMANTOWN. 

the following year. Admiral Howe's fleet lay in the Delaware, and General 
Howe, who was of a sluggish temperament, was superseded by Sir Henry Clin- 
ton, between whom and Cornwallis the relations soon became strained. With 
a view of concentrating the British forces, and, since the French fleet was known 
to have sailed for America, it wa.s decided that the army in Philadelphia should 
be removed to New York. Wishing to strike France, it was determined to 
make a descent upon the French West Indies, for which 5,000 troops were to 
be detached from the army. 

BATTLE OF MONMOUTH. 

Clinton found that he had not enough transports to taue nis troops to New 
York, and a considerable number started overland. On the same day that he 



i 



EVACUATION OF PHILADELPHIA. 121 

marched out of Philadelphia, Washington's vanguard entered it. On the 28th, 
Clinton was encamped near Monmouth Court-House, New Jersey (now Free- 
hold), with Washington close upon him. With five miles separating the two 
armies at night, Lee, who had command of 5,000 men, moved them nearer the 
enemy, Washington having ordered him to attack in the morning as soon as 
Clinton began moving. 

The days were the longest in the year and the heat frightful. At the 
earliest dawn, Washington was notified that the enemy had started toward New 
York. He ordered Lee to advance and open battle without delay, unless he saw 
urgent reasons for not doing so. Washington at the same time pushed forward 
with the main body to his support. 

The attack was made about eight o'clock, but the reports of the movements 
were so confusing that those of the Americans became disjointed ; but everything 
was going in their favor, when greater confusion caused a falling back of the 
patriots, with the result that at noon Lee's whole division was in retreat, and he 
had started to follow them when he came face to face with Washington himself. 

Those who saw the meeting never forgot it. It required immense provoca- 
tion to rouse Washington's anger, but he was in a savage mood, and in a voice 
of thunder demanded of Lee the meaning of his retreat. Lee was confused, but, 
breaking in upon him, the commander ordered him to the rear, while he took 
command. The battle lasted until five o clock in the afternoon, scores on each 
side succumbing from the heat. While the advantage was with the Americans, 
the battle was indecisive, and Washington anxiously waited for daylight to com- 
plete his victory ; but Clinton moved away in the night, and, reaching Sandy 
Hook, was taken aboard of Howe's fleet and landed in New York on the 5th of 
July. Washington marched to the Hudson, crossed at King's Ferry, and took 
position near his former camp at White Plains. Lee was court-martialed and 
dismissed for his conduct, and, as stated elsewhere, it has been proven that he 
was a traitor to the American cause. 

There are several interesting facts connected with the battle of Monmouth, 
on whose grounds a fine monument was erected some years ago. Among the 
British grenadiers slain was a sergeant who was seven feet four inches in height. 
So many of these grenadiers were killed that thirteen were buried in one grave. 
Lieutenant-Colonel Monckton, their commander, was among the slain. On the 
pews and floor of the old Tennent church, still standing on the scene of the 
battle, may be seen the dark stains from the wounds of several soldiers who were 
carried within the quaint structure. 

THE STORY OF MOLLY PITCHEK, 

It would never do to omit the story of Molly Pitcher from the account of 



122 WAR IN THE MIDDLE STATES AND ON SEA. 

the battle of Monmouth, for the incident is true, and is commemorated on one 
of the bronze reliefs of the monument. Her husband was a cannoneer, who with 
his companions suffered so much from thirst that Molly was kept busy carrying 
water for them from a neighboring spring. While thus engaged, her husband 
was killed before her eyes, and there being no one available to handle the piece, 
an officer ordered its removal. Molly asked the privilege of taking her hus- 
band's place. Permission was given, and she handled the cannon with skill 
throughout the entire action. 

The incident was told to Washington, who after the battle asked that she 
be presented to him. He complimented her warmly, and conferred upon her the 
rank of lieutenant, while Congress gave her halfrpay during life. The State of 
Pennsylvania, where she afterward made her home at Carlisle, added to this, so 
that she lived in comfort for the rest of her days. Her right name was Mary 
McAuley, and she died in Carlisle in 1833, a fine slab of marble marking her 
last resting-place. 

DISAPPOINTMENT OVER THE AID FROM FRANCE. 

Despite the great expectations roused by the friendship of France and the 
arrival of her fleet, it gave little aid to the Americans until the Yorktown 
ampaign. D'Estaing had a fine opportunity of forcing his way into New York, 
destroying the British fleet and blockading Clinton, but he lacked the courage to 
do so. Then he sailed for Newport, Rhode Island, to attack the British forces 
there, but matters were so delayed that Howe arrived with a fleet of equal 
strength. While they were manoeuvring for position, a violent storm arose, and, 
at the close, D'Estaing sailed to Boston for repairs, taking all his troops with 
him, while Howe returned to New York. 

The Americans were indignant over the desertion of their allies. The 
French officers were insulted on the streets of Boston, and one of them was 
killed in a brawl. Sullivan and Greene were so outspoken that it required all 
the shrewdness of Washington and Congress to prevent an open rupture. 

THE WYOMING MASSACRE. 

In the month of July, 1778, a band of Tories and Indians entered the 
lovely valley of Wyoming, under the leadership of Colonel John Butler, whose 
cousin. Colonel Zebulon Butler, was commander of the old men and boys left in 
the town by the departure of nearly all of the able-bodied men to fight in the 
Continental armies. The patriots made a brave defense, but they were overcome 
and put to flight. Women and children ran to the woods, in which they were 
overtaken and tomahawked ; others died from exposure, while a few succeeded 
in reaching the towns on the upper Delaware. This sad massacre has made the. 



THE CONTINENTAL CURRENCY. 



123 



name of Wyoming known throughout the world, and gives a saa pathos to the 
monument which was erected in 1824 over the bones of the victims. 



PUNISHMENT OF THE IROQUOIS. 

Some months later, Cherry Valley in New York suiFerea a similar visita- 
tion from the Indians, who now learned for the first time that a power had 
grown up in this country which could not only punish, but could do so with un- 
precedented vigor. The red men were so troublesome that Congress saw it 
would not do to defer giving them a much-needed lesson. The guilty Indians 
were the Iroquois in central New York. In 1779, General Sullivan led an ex- 
pedition against them. He showed no mercy to those that had denied mercy to 
the helj)less. Hundreds were killed, their houses burned, their fields laid waste, 
and the whole country 




ONE SIXTH OFA SPANISH 

yiiUcl Tiallar.'orihcVcUuo 
thereof Cn GoldorSilvcT 
/o^c given in exchange at 
Treasury o£ VIRGINIA, 
Tursuani fo ACT oj 

iVSSEMBXjY 



ONE iSIXXH 

OFABOLIvAR 



SB^VTH TO 
COUNTERFEIT 



C>e 




'^^. 



'^^^ 



VIRGINIA CURKEyCYi 



made such a desert that 
many perished from star- 
vation. 

THE CONTINENTAL 
CURRENCY. 

One of the "sinews 
of war " is money. It is 
impossible for any nation 
to carry on a war long 
without i'uuds. The 
Americans were poor, 
but they issued pa23er 
promises to pay, which were known as Continental money. As the war pro- 
gressed, and more money was needed, it was issued. In 1778, it took eight 
paper dollars to equal one of gold or silver. More was necessary and more was 
issued. Besides this, the paper and printing were of such poor quality that the 
British in New York made a great many counterfeits that were exchanged with 
the farmers in the vicinity. The value of the currency decreased until the time 
came when it was absolutely worthless. 

When Clinton occupied New York and Washington was encamped on the 
Hudson above, there were many forays against each other. The design of the 
British commander was to force his way to the Highlands, seize the passes and 
gain full command of the Hudson. He had already secured Stony Point, and 
Washington formed a plan for retaking it, which was intrusted to the brilliant 
A.nthony Wayne. 

In the middle of July, Wayne took command of four regiments of infantry, 



124 WAR IN THE MIDDLE STATES AND ON SEA. 

which marched twelve miles through the insufferably hot night, when they 
reached a point about a mile from the fort. Wayne went forward while his 
men were resting and made a careful reconnoissance. Rejoining his troops, he 
divided them into two columns, and, to prevent any mistake as to their identity, 
a piece of white paper was pinned to each hat. All the superfluous clothing 
was flung aside. He impressed ujDon his men that the bayonet alone was to be 
used, and, to prevent the discharge of a gun by some nervous soldier, he ordered 
his ofiicers to cut down the first man who took his musket from his shoulder 
without the order to do so. 

The two divisions approaching from opposite sides were to attack the fort 
at the same moment. Before it was reached, the pickets discovered them and 
opened fire. The garrison was aroused, and, hurrying to their posts, cried out 
'".auntingly : 

" Come on, you rebels ! we're waiting for you ! " 

" "We'll be there," was the reply ; and the patriots kept their word, carrying 
matters with such a rush that the flag was speedily lowered. While leading his 
men, Wayne was struck in the forehead by a musket-ball and fell to the ground. 
Believing himself mortally wounded, he asked to be carried forward that he 
might die within the fort. While his men were assisting him, it was found that 
he had only been stunned. He recovered a moment later and was among the 
first to enter the defenses. 

The American loss was slight, and they secured nearly six hundred prisoners, 
with a lot of valuable stores. The fort was destroyed before they left, the ruins 
being occupied some days later by a British force. 

THE INFANT AMERICAN NAVY. 

Thus far we have had nothing to tell about the infant American navy. 
At the beginning of the war, in 1775, Washington sent several privateers to 
cruise along the New England coast, and Congress established a naval depart- 
ment. Thirteen ships were fitted out and two battalions of seamen enlisted. 
The opportunity of capturing prizes from the enemy was very alluring to the 
skillful American seamen, and so many dashing privateers started forth in quest 
of them that in the course of three years fully five hundred ships, sailing under 
the English flag, were captured. Some of the daring cruisers did not hesitate 
to enter British waters in search of the enemy. 

GREAT NAVAL VICTORY OF PAUL JONES. 

No braver man than John Paul Jones ever trod the quarter-deck. On the 
first chance he displayed so much courage and skill that he was made a captain. 
He was cruising off Solway Firth near his birthplace one night, when he rowed 



II 



GREAT NAVAL VICTORY OF PAUL JONES. 



125 



ashore on the coast of Cumberland, with only thirty-one volunteers, and burned 
three vessels in the harbor of Whitehaven and spiked a number of cannon in 
the guard-room of the fort. England was alarmed, declared him a jiirate, and 
put forth every efibrt to capture him. 

In 1779, Paul Jones, as he is more generally known, put to sea in com- 
mand of the Bon Homme Richard, and accompanied by two consorts, the 
Alliance and the Pallas. The Richard was an old East Indiaman, given him 
by the king of France and 
named in compliment to 
Franklin, who had published 
" Poor Richard's Almanac " 
for so many years that he was 
often identified with the publi- 
cation. 

AVhen Jones was off Scar- 
borough, he sighted the Baltic 
fleet of merchantmen home- 
ward bound, and escorted by 
the frigates Countess of Sear- 
borough and the Serapis. The 
latter carried fifty guns and the 
former twenty-two, while Jones 
had forty-four guns and three 
hundred and seventy-five men, 
two-thirds of whom were pris- 
oners of war, since he had 
greatly weakened his crew in 
order to send home the many 
prizes captured. 

The moment Jones iden- 
tified the enemy, he signaled 
to his consorts to join him in pursuit. Night had closed in and the moon was 
shining, when the captain of the Serapis hailed Jones, who answered by opening 
fire. The enemy was equally prompt, and thus one of the most famous fights 
in naval history began. It is almost past comprehension how Jones fought so 
terrifically when the disadvantages under which he labored are known. Firing 
had scarcely begun when one of the guns on the lower deck exploded, killing 
several men. The survivors ran above, and the piece was not used again during 
the fight. 

Jones tried to close with the Serapis, but, finding he could not bring his 




PAUL JONES. 



126 



WAE JN THE 3IIDDLE STATES AND ON SEA. 



guns to bear, he allowed his ship to fall off. The prisoners, who outnumbered 
his crew, were kept busy extinguishing the fires that continually broke out, by 
being told that it was the only way to save themselves from death by burning. 
In the midst of the terrific fighting, when the BicJiard seemed doomed. Captain 
Pearson of the Serapis shouted : 
" Have you struck ? " 
"Struck ! " replied Jones; "I am just beginning to fight." 

While the ships 
were lurching, one 
of the' enemy's 
anchors caught the 
quarter of the Rich- 
ard and the two 
held fast, thence- 
forward fighting 
side by side. They 
were so close indeed 
that the Serapis 
could not open her 
starboard ports, and 
the cannon were 
fired through the 
port-lids, which 
were blown off; but 
the main deck of 
the Richard was so 
high that the broad- 
sides of the enemy 
injured no one, 
though they did 
great damage to the 
vessel. This tremen- 
dous battle lasted 

for two hours, the muzzles of the guns scraping one another, and the cannon being 
discharged as fast as they could be loaded. The Richard was soon shattered 
to that extent that she began sinking. Fire broke out repeatedly on both vessels, 
and finally Jones was able to work only three of his guns. At this crisis, he | 
found that his consort, the Alliance, Captain Landais, was firing into him as ' 
well as the Serapis; but not heeding him, he continued his battle with the 
Serapis, whose sailors fought as bravely as his own. 




FIGHT iiiiiT VVJlIJUiM aUSi HUmittJ!. iilOilAirtU AIM JJ C5Ji,x\j>.jria. 



GREAT NAVAL VICTORY OF PAUL JONES. 



127 



The fearful struggle was decided by a sailor in the rigging of the Richard, 
who was engaged in throwing hand-grenades on the deck of the Serapis. One 
of these dropped into the hatchway and exploded a mass of eighteen-pound 
cartridges, which tilled twenty and wounded twice as many more. Captain 
Pearson placed himself at the head of his boarders and made a rush for the 
deck of the Richard. Jones, leading his own men, drove tliem back. The 

explosion of the 



grenades silenced 
the main battery 
of the Serapis, and 
Captain Pearson 
himself hauled 
down his colors, 
both crews in the 
awful confusion 
believing for some 
minutes that it 
was the Richard 
that had surren- 
dered. 

When day 
dawned, the rid- 
dled Richa7-d was 
settling fast, and 
Jones had barely 
time to remove his 
crew to the Serapis 
when his own ves- 
sel went down. 
Four-fifths of his 
men had been 
killed or wounded. 
I nvestigation 
of the conduct of 
into the Richard led to the conclusion that he was 
Jones did no more special service 




4. 



BRITISH CAPTAIN SUEEENDERING HIS S'WTORD TO PAUL JONES. 



firing 



Captain Landais in 

insane, and he was deprived of his command 

for the Americans. For his unsurpassable achievement he received the thanks 

of Congress, and the king of France presented him with a gold sword. After 

the war he became a rear-admiral in the Russian navy, and died in Paris in 

1792. 



128 WAR IN THE MIDDLE STATES AND ON SEA. 

One of the saddest and most shocking events of the Revolution was the 
treason of Benedict Arnold, who had won a brilliant reputation for his bravery 
and generalship. He was quick-tempered, treacherous, and extravagant, and dis- 
liked by most of his men, despite his extraordinary daring. His first resent- 
ment against Congress was the failure of that body to make him one of the first 
five major-generals, in the face, too, of Washington's urgent recommendation 
for such promotion, which was made after Arnold's splendid services at 
Saratoga. 

He was placed in command at Philadelphia, while recovering from the 
wounds received at Saratoga. He married a Tory lady, and his misconduct 
caused his trial by court-martial, which sentenced him to be reprimanded by the 
commander-in-chief Washington performed the unpleasant duty with delicacy, 
but its memory rankled and was increased by his anger against Congress for its 
refusal to allow his claims for expenses in the Canadian exj^edition. Influenced 
also, no doubt, by the Tory sentiments of his wife, he determined to take the 
step which has covered his name with everlasting infamy. 

On the plea that his wounds were not yet healed, he induced Washington 
to place him in command at West Point, the most important post in the country 
and the principal depot of supplies. He opened a correspondence with Sir 
Henry Clinton at New York, and agreed for a stated sum of money and an 
appointment in the British army to surrender the post to a force which Clinton 
was to send against it. When a point in the negotiations was reached where it 
was necessary to send a trusted agent to meet Arnold, Clinton dispatched Major 
John Andre, who went up the Hudson in a sloop, and, Sej^tember 22, 1780, met 
Arnold at the foot of Long Clove Mountain. Everything being agreed ujjon, 
Andre started to return to the sloop, but found that, owing to its having been 
fired upon by a party of Americans, it had dropped down stream. Obliged to 
make his way to New York by land, he assumed the dress of a civilian, and, 
furnished with a pass by Arnold, he set out on horseback. 

When near Tarrytown, he was stojjped by three Americans, Isaac Van 
Wart, John Paulding, and David Williams, who demanded his identity and 
business. One of the three happened to be wearing a British coat, which he 
had exchanged for one of his own while a prisoner of war, and the fact led 
Andre to think they were friends. Before he discovered his mistake, he had 
made known that he was a British officer, and he was ordered to dismount and 
submit to a search. The fatal papers were found on him, and, seeing his busi- 
ness was known, he offered everything he had, besides the promise of a large 
sum of money from Sir Henry Clinton, to be allowed to go. His captors re- 
fused and conducted him to North Castle, where he was given up to Lieutenant- 
Colonel Jameson. That officer had the proof before him in the papers that 



THE TREASON OF BENEDICT ARNOLD. 



129 



Arnold was the unspeakable traitor, but with a stupidity difficult to understand, 
he sent a letter to Arnold acquainting him with the capture of Andre. 

Arnold was eating breakfast 
at his house near the Hudson, when 
the note was brought to him by the 
messenger. Knowing what it meant, 
he called his wife to him, told her 
of his danger, 
kissed his .^t. ■-- 




S^ ESCAPE OP BENEDICT ARNOLD. 



sleeping boy in the cradle, rau 
out of the house, mounted his 
horse and galloped at headlong 
speed for the river. There he sprang into a boat and ordered the men to row 

9 



130 WAR IN THE MIDDLE STATES AND ON SEA. 

with all haste to the sloop, still at anchor a short distance clown stream and 
waiting for Andre. Since these men had no suspicion of the truth they obeyed 
orders, and Arnold, by waving a white handkerchief over his head, prevented 
the Americans on the shore from firing at him. He reached the sloop in safety 
and was carried to New York. 

The fact that Andre was wearing a civilian suit at the time of his capture 
made him a s])j, according to the laws of war, and the court-martial before 
which he was called sentenced him to be hanged. Clinton was greatly distressed 
by the imjjending fate of his favorite officer and did his utmost to secure his 
release by Washington. It was intimated to Clinton that Washington might be 
induced to exchange Andre for Arnold, but such an act by the British com- 
mander would have covered his name with infamy, and he was too honorable 
even to consider it. 

Andre accej^ted his fate bravely, only asking that he might be shot instead 
of hanged, but even that boon was denied him. General Greene, who presided 
at the court-martial, insisted that such leniency 'would have been an admission 
of a doubt of the justice of his sentence. Andre was hanged October 2, 1780. 
King George III. caused a mural tablet to be erected to his memory, and his re- 
mains were removed to England in 1821 and placed in Westminster Abbey. A 
pension was conferred upon his mother and his brother was created a baronet. 
Sad as was the fate of Andre, and general as was the sympathy felt for him in 
this country, there can be no question of the justice of his sentence. He was a 
spy, and, had he succeeded in his mission, might have caused the failure of the 
war for independence. 

Arnold received more than |30,000 as a reward for his treason. He was 
disliked by the British officers, and Cornwallis did not hesitate to show his con- 
tempt for him. He engaged in several raids against his countrymen, but since 
he always fought "with a rope around his neck," he was never trusted with any 
important command. 

He removed to England with his family after the war, and his sons received 
commissions in the British army. It is worth noting that all did creditable ser- 
vice, and their descendants became worthy members of the comuuinity, a fact 
which no one can regret, since they could be held in no way responsible for the 
horrifying crime of their ancestor, who, despised by all around him, died in 
London in 1801. 



II 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE REVOLUTION IN THE SOUTH (CONCLUDED). 

Capture of Savannah — British Conquest of Georgia — Fall of Charleston — Bitter Warfare in South Caro- 
lina — Battle of Camden — Of King's Mountain — Of the Cowpens — Battle of Guilford Court-House— 
Movements of Cornwallis— The Final Campaign — Peace and Independence. 

CONQUEST OF GEORGIA. 

The wave of war continued to roll southward. The British had met with 
such meagre success in the Northern and Middle States that they turned their 
efforts toward the conquest of the South. In the latter part of December, 1778, 
an expedition from New York compelled the small garrison at Savannah to sur- 
render. British troops from Florida then reinforced the expedition, Augusta 
and other towns were captured, and the whole State was brought under British 
control. General Benjamin Lincoln, the American commander, had too few 
troops to offer successful resistance, and the Tories gave much trouble. 

In September, 1779, Lincoln crossed into Georgia and, with the aid of the 
French fleet under D'Estaing, made an attempt to recapture Savannah. The 
attack was made with the greatest bravery by the allies, but they suffered a dis- 
astrous repulse, and D'Estaing again sailed for the West Indies. Georgia was 
brought so completely under British control that a royal governor and officers 
were installed. The Whigs were treated with great cruelty, and for two years 
the struggle in the Carolinas assumed a ferocious character. It was civil war in 
its most frightful form. Neighbor was arrayed against neighbor. Every man 
was compelled to be a Whig or Tory, and when one party captured another, it 
generally executed the prisoners as traitors. There were many instances in 
which those of the same family fought one another with the utmost fury, and the 
horrors of war were displayed in all their dreadful colors. 

For a long time the British kept a strong force at Newport, but they were 
withdrawn, and a strong expedition was sent South to capture Charleston. 

BRITISH capture OF CHARLESTON. 

General Lincoln had a garrison of 3,000, his forts, and a number of vesseTs, 
with which he was confident of making a successful defense of the city. The 
ships, however, were so inferior to those of the enemy that Commodore Whipple 

(131) 



132 THE REVOLUTION IN THE SOUTH. 

sank all except one at the mouth of Cooper River to block the channel, and 
added his men and guns to the defenses of Charleston. 

Clinton's force was about double that of Lincoln, and he made his 
approaches with care and skill. By April 10th he was within a half-mile of the 
city, and, Lincoln having refused the demand for surrender, the enemy opened 
fire. Lieutenant-Colonel Tarleton, the best cavalry leader the British had in the 
country, scattered the patriot cavalry at the rear of the city, which was fully in- 
vested. Reinforcements arrived from New York, and the siege was pushed 
vigorously. The garrison made a sortie which accomplished nothing. Tarleton 
continually defeated the American cavalry at the rear, many guns were dis- 
mounted, food and supplies were exhausted until all hoj^e was gone, and on the 
12th of May, 1780, Lincoln surrendered his army and the city. 

This was one of the severest blows of the war. Clinton secured the city 
and more than 400 pieces of artillery. He treated his prisoners kindly, but lost 
no time in following up his success. Tarleton destroyed the command of Col- 
onel Abraham Buford, numbering 400 men, and thus effectually quenched all 
organized resistance for a time in South Carolina. 

Clinton would have completed the conquest of the South by advancing into 
North Carolina, had he not learned that a French fleet was expected on the 
coast. This led him to return to New York with the main army, while Corn- 
wallis was left behind with 4,000 men to complete the unfinished work as best 
he could. 

In the spring of 1780, Washington sent reinforcements to the South, with 
a regiment of artillery under Baron DeKalb, a German veteran who had come 
to America with Lafayette. Although one of the finest of officers, he could 
scarcely speak a word of English, and General Gates, on June 13, 1780, was 
ordered by Congress to assume command of the southern department. He 
proved unequal to the difficult task, for not only were the troops few and miser- 
ably disciplined and armed, but they were in a starving condition. The summer 
was one of the hottest ever known, and, although reinforcements were expected, 
Gates decided not to wait before putting his forces in motion. Reinforcements 
reaching him after a time, he marched against Cornwallis, who was eager to 
meet him. 

AMERICAN DEFEAT AT CAMDEN. 

The battle was fought at Camden, and was conducted with such skill by 
Cornwallis that the raw and untried patriots were utterly routed. The centre 
and left wings were swept from the field, but the right under De Kalb fought 
with splendid heroism, and it required the whole army of Cornwallis to drive it 
from the field. In the fight De Kalb received eleven wounds, and died the next 
morning. 



AN INTERESTING ANECDOTE. 133 

The battle of Camden marked the complete destruction of Grates' army. 
The militia scattered to their homes, convinced that it was useless to fight longer, 
while Gates with a few adherents continued his flight for nearly two hundred 
miles. Two days later, Colonel Sumter with eight hundred men was attacked 
on the Wateree by Tarleton, who killed half his force and recaptured his 
prisoners and booty. 

PATRIOT PARTISANS. 

Confident that the complete conquest of the South was close at hand, Corn- 
wallis gave every energy to the work. This was rendered difiicult by the ac- 
tivity of Francis Marion, Thomas Sumter, Andrew Pickens, and other partisan 
leaders, who were acquainted with every mile of the country, and on their 
horses made swift marches, struck effective blows, and were off again before pur- 
suit could be made. The wonderful work of Marion in this respect caused him 
to be known as the " Swamp Fox of the Carolinas." Many of Tarleton's 
troopers fell before the fire of these daring rangers, who occasionally were 
strong enough to capture important posts. It is worthy of mention in this place 
that to Sumter was the distinction of attaining the greatest age of any officer of 
the Revolution. At his death, in 1832, he was in his ninety-ninth year. 

AN INTERESTING ANECDOTE. 

As illustrative of the spirit of the Southern colonists, we may be pardoned 
for the digression of the following anecdote. The fighting of Marion and his 
men was much like that of the wild Apaches ^. the southwest. When hotly 
pursued by the enemy his command would break up into small parties, and these 
as they were hard pressed would subdivide, until nearly every patriot was fleeing 
alone. There could be no successful pursuit, therefore, since the subdivision of 
the pursuing party weakened it too much. 

"We will give fifty pounds to get within reach of the scamp that galloped 
by here, just ahead of us," exclaimed a lieutenant of Tarleton's cavalry, as he 
and three other troopers drew up before a farmer, who was hoeing in the field 
by the roadside. 

The farmer looked up, leaned on his hoe, took off" his old hat, and, mopping 
his forehead with his handkerchief, looked at the angry soldier and said : 

" Fifty pounds is a big lot of money." 

" So it is in these times, but we'll give it to you in gold, if you'll show U8 
where we can get a chance at the rebel ; did you see him ? " 

" He was all alone, was he ? And he was mounted on a black horse with a 
white star in his forehead, and he was going like a streak of lightning, wasn't he?" 

" That's the fellow ! " exclaimed the questioners, hoping they were about to 
get the knowledge they wanted. 



134 



THE REVOLUTION IN THE SOUTH. 



" It looked to me like Jack Davis, tliough lie went by so fct&l tliat I couldn't 
get a square look at his face, but lie was one of Marion's men, and if I ain't 
greatly mistaken it 
was Jack Davis liim- ^^.,..-.^.~^-.^^~-^^'^r~-'^^^,vB.sm^ s,iiig:. 

sel£" ^. " 

Then looking 
up at the 
four British 




i I 










„--: ; Cs^MMfis'iiM'K: 






TABLETON'S LIEUTENANT AND THE FAKMEK (JACK DAVIB). 



horsemen, the farmer added, with a quizzical expression : 

" I reckon that ere Jack Davis has hit you chaps pretty hard, ain't he ? 



PATRIOT VICTORY AT KING'S MOUNTAIN. 135 

" Never raind about that," replied the lieutenant ; " what we want to know 
is wliere we can get a chance at him for just about five minutes." 

The farmer put his cotton handkerchief into his hat, which he now slowly 
replaced, and shook his head: " I don't think he's hiding rouud here," he said; 
" when he shot by Jack was going so fast that it didn't look as if he could stop 
under four or five miles. Strangers, I'd like powerful well to earn that fifty 
pounds, but I don't think you'll get a chance to scpiander it on me." 

After some further questioning, the lieutenant and his men wheeled their 
horses and trotted back toward the main body of Tarleton's cavalry. The 
farmer plied his hoe for several minutes, gradually working his way toward the 
stretch of woods some fifty yards from the roadside, where he stepped in among the 
trees and disappeared. You understand, of course, that the farmer that leaned 
on his hoe by the roadside and talked to Tarleton's lieutenant about Jack Davis 
and his exploits was Jack Davis himself 

One day a British ofiicer visited Marion under a flag of truce. When the 
business was finished Marion urged him to stay to dinner, and the ofiicer ac- 
cepted the invitation. The meal consisted of only baked sweet potatoes. Noting 
the surprise of his guest, Marion explained that the fare was the regular food of 
himself and soldiers, but, in honor of the guest, the allowance had been increased 
that day. This anecdote, which seems to be authentic, was supplemented by 
the officer's return to Charleston, where he resigned his commission, declaring 
that it was useless to try to conquer such men. Marion led a spotless life, held 
in high esteem by friend and enemy, and his name will always be revered 
throughout this country, especially in the South. 

PATRIOT VICTOEY AT KING'S MOUNTAIN. 

The next battle took place at King's Mountain, October 8, 1780. Corn- 
wallis had sent Colonel Ferguson with about 1,100 men to rouse the Tories in 
North Carolina. He met with slight success, and fortified himself on King's 
Mountain, between the Broad and Catawba Rivers, and on the border between 
North and South Carolina. Aware of his danger, he sent messengers to Corn- 
wallis urging him to forward reinforcements without delay. The Americans 
captured every one of the messengers, and of course no reinforcements arrived. 

The jjatriots consisted mainly of North Carolina and Kentucky riflemen, 
numbering 1,500, all excellent marksmen. They attacked in three sepixate 
columns, each of which was repulsed by Ferguson's men, who fouglit with cool- 
ness and bravery. Then the Americans united and attacked again. Ferguson 
was mortally wounded, and his successor was so hard pressed that he surrenderetl. 
Four hundred of his men fled, three hundred were killed, and eight hundred 
laid down their arms, while the loss of the Americans was no more than twenty. 



136 THE REVOLUTION IN THE SOUTH. 

King's Mountain was a brilliant victory for the Americans and caused 
Cornwallis to retreat into North Carolina. His men suflFered greatly, and the 
commander himself falling ill, the command was turned over to Lord Rawdon, 
then a young man and famous afterward in India as the Marquis of Hastings. 

GENERAL GREENE's SUCCESS IN THE SOUTH. 

The failure of Gates led Congress to send the Quaker General Greene to 
the South. Next to Washington, he was the most skillful leader of the Revolution, 
and, despite his discouragements and difficulties, he speedily demonstrated the 
wisdom of the step that placed him where he was so much needed. 

DEFEAT OF TARLETON. 

Greene sent Daniel Morgan, the famous commander of the Virginia rifle- 
men, into South Carolina with a thousand men to gather recruits. Cornwallis 
dis2)atched Tarleton with the same number after him. The forces met at the 
Cowpens, near Spartanburg, in January, 1781. This time the terrible Tarleton 
found that he had met his master. Morgan utterly routed him, as was proven 
by the fact that Tarleton lost a hundred men killed, besides ten commissioned 
officers. A large number were wounded, and six hundred prisoners, his two 
guns, his colors, eight hundred muskets, a hundred horses, and most of his bag- 
gage train were captured. Of the Americans only twelve were killed and 
about fifty wounded. Tarleton himself had a narrow escape, but got away with 

a handful of men. 

Greene's skillful retreat. 

Determined to punish the audacious Morgan, Cornwallis started after him 
with his entire army. Greene and Morgan, having united, fell back, for their 
troops were too few to risk a battle. Their retreat across North Carolina into 
Virginia has never been surpassed in this country. Three times the British 
army were at the heels of the Americans, who avoided them through the for- 
tunate rise of the rivers, immediately after they had crossed. Cornwallis main- 
tained the pursuit until the Dan was reached, when he gave up and returned to 
Hillboro. 

BATTLE of GUILFORD COURT-HOUSE. 

Having obtained a number of recruits, Greene turned back into North 
Carolina, and the two armies encountered at Guilford Court-House (now Greens- 
boro), in March, 1781. Some o the American militia gave way, but the rest 
bravely held their ground, and, when compelled at last to retreat, did so in good 
order. Cornwallis had been handled so roughly that he did not venture to 
pursue the Americans. 

Cornwallis now withdrew to Wilmington, while Greene moved across North 



MOVEMENTS OF C0RNWALLI8. 



137 



Carolina after the British forces under Lord Rawdon. Several engagements 
took place, the principal one being at Hobkirk's Hill, near Camden. Greene 
inflicted severe losses upon 
the enemy, but was com- 
pelled to retreat, and spent 
the summer among the hills 
of the Santee, in the neigh- 
borhood of Camden. Ad- 
vancing toward the coast, 
he fought the last battle in 
the State, at Eutaw Springs, 
near Charleston, September 
8, 1781. The advantage 
was with the British, but 
the victory was one of those 
that are as disastrous as de- 
feat. Their loss was so 
heavy that they retreated 
during the night and took 
shelter in Charleston. 
Greene had completed his 
work with admirable effect- 
iveness. Without winning 
victories he had, by his cau- 
tion, skill, celerity of move- 
ment, and generalship, al- 
most cleared the South of 
the enemy, for the only 
points held by them were 
Charleston and Savannah, 
where they were closely 
hemmed in for the rest of 
the war. 

MOVEMENTS OF COKNWALLIS. 

Meanwhile Cornwallis 
was at Wilmington, where 
he learned of Greene's move- 
ments too late to intercept him. He was confident, however, that Rawdon was 
strong enough to overthrow Greene, and he moved northward into Virginia 




138 THE REVOLUTION IN THE SOUTH. 

to join the forces already there, and complete the conquest of the State. No seri- 
ous opposition was encountered by him, and Tarleton plundered the country as 
he passed through it. Entering Virginia, Cornwallis found himself opposed by 
Lafayette, with 4,000 troops, which was hardly one-half the force under his own 
command. Orders came from Clinton in New York for Cornwallis to seize 
upon some suitable place near the coast, easily reached by the British vessels. 
Cornwallis selected Yorktown, on the peninsula between the James and York 
Rivers, where he fixed the headquarters of the army, and began throwing up 
fortifications. 

OUR FEENCH ALLIES. 

The time had come when the friendship of France for America was to 
accomplish something. In the summer of 1780 Rochambeau landed at Newport 
with 6,000 troops, and later they were marched to "Washington's camp, near 
Peekskill and Morristown. Confident that he now had an army that could 
achieve important results, Washington made j^reparations to attack Clinton in 
New York. Rochambeau gave him every help, the allies working together 
with the utmost cordiality and enthusiasm. 

THE YORKTOWN CAMPAIGN. 

Clinton was in a constant state of apprehension, for he had good cause to 
fear the result of the attack that impended. Washington's plan, however, was 
changed, in the summer of 1781, by the news that a French fleet and a strong force 
would soon arrive in Chesapeake Bay and shut off* Cornwallis from all assistance 
from Clinton. Washington decided to march southward and capture Yorktown 
and Cornwallis, meanwhile keeping Clinton under the belief that he meant to 
attack him. So well was the secret kept that Clinton's suspicions were not 
aroused until several days after the dejjarture of the allied armies. 

De Grasse, the commander of the French fleet, arrived in Chesapeake Bay 
August 30th. Thus Cornwallis was blocked off from the sea, and enough soldiers 
were landed to jirevent the British commander's escape by land. On the same 
day Washington and Rochambeau, after making a feint toward Staten Island, 
began a rapid march through New Jersey to Philadelphia, and thence to Elkton, 
Maryland. Officers and men were in high spirits, for they knew they were on 
the eve of great events. The citizens of Philadelphia shared the feeling, and 
cheered the men as they marched through the streets. On the way southward 
Washington made a hurried visit to Mount Vernon, which he had not seen 
since the opening of the war. 

Aware of the grave danger threatening Cornwallis, a British fleet made an 
effort to relieve him, but the more powerful French fleet easily beat it off". The 



THE SURRENDER. 139 

allied armies boarded the waiting ships at Elkton, and, sailing down the Chesa- 
peake to James River, joined Lafayette's force in front of Yorktown. 

The historical siege of Yorktown opened September 30, 1781. The French 
and American armies were ranged in a half-circle in front of Yorktown. Corn- 
wallis was indignant at the apparent desertion by Clinton, and wrote to him in 
the middle of September : " This place is in no state of defense. If you cannot 
relieve me very soon, you must expect to hear the worst." Word came from 
Clinton that a fleet of twenty -three ships and more than 5,000 troops would sail 
to his relief about the 5th of October. 

The French soldiers in their gay uniforms and the Continentals in their 
rags maintained an ardent but friendly rivalry in pressing the siege. Wash- 
ington aimed and applied the match to the first gun that was fired into Yorktown. 
Governor Nelson, being asked to direct the bombardment, selected the house 
which he believed to be the headquarters of Cornwallis, and calmly saw it bat- 
tered to ruins. It was his own home. 

The condition of the defenders hourly grew worse. The lack of forage 
compelled them to kill most of their horses, whose bodies drifted down the river. 
As is generally the case at such times, sickness broke out among the British 
troops, and 2,000 of the 7,000 were in the hospital. The allies steadily worked 
their way forward by means of parallels, and finally the guns along the entire 
front of Cornwallis were dismounted and his shells expended. 

His situation had become so desperate that no one could have condemned 
him for surrendering, but, before doing so, he resolved to make a determined 
effort to extricate himself from the trap in which he was caught. His plan was 
to abandon his sick, baggage, and all incumbrances, cross the river in the dark- 
ness to Gloucester, attack and scatter the French force stationed there, and then 
hasten northward through Pennsylvania and New Jersey to New York. 

This attempt would have been made, but, after a part of the army had 
crossed, a violent storm scattered the boats and compelled their return. The 
result quenched the last spark of hope in the breast of Cornwallis. He opened 
negotiations with Washington, and the terms of surrender were signed 
October 18th. 

THE SURRENDER. 

At two o'clock the next afternoon, the British troops marched slowly out 
of Yorktown, drums beating, muskets shouldered, and colors cased. The 
American line was drawn up on the right of the road and the French on the 
left, its extent being fully a mile. Washington allowed no idle spectators present, 
and repressed every sign of exultation on the part of the captors. 

General O'Hara, riding at the head of the troops, saluted when he came 
opposite Washington, and apologized for the absence of Cornwallis, who was 



140 THE REVOLUTION IN THE SOUTH. 

suffering from illness. When O'Hara's sword was offered to Washington, he 
replied that General Lincoln had been designated to receive it. There was 
poetical justice in this, since it was Lincoln who had been obliged to surrender 
Charleston to Clinton the previous year. 

The prisoners numbered 7,247 English and Hessian soldiers and 840 
sailors. Seventy-five brass and thirty-one iron guns were also secured, including 
the accoutrements of the army. Clinton with the promised relief arrived off" the 
Chesapeake on the 24th, and learned to his consternation that every British sol- 
dier in Virginia was a prisoner of war. With indescribable sadness he sailed 
back to New York, feeling, as did everyone else, that English rule in America 
was ended and American independence won. 

Washington dispatched a courier with the glorious news to Philadelphia. 
Riding at headlong speed and changing his horse frequently, he reached the 
national capital on the evening of the 23d. In those days the city was provided 
with watchmen, who made the tour of the streets crying the hour. That night 
the cry rang out — 

" PAST TWO o'clock AND CORNWALLIS IS TAKEN." 

Windows flew up, lights twinkled from every house, men rushed out half- 
clothed, cheering, flinging their hats in air and embracing one another in theu'joy. 
All the bells were set ringing, and the whole city gave itself over to rejoicing. 
It was stirred to its profoundest depths by the thrilling tidings, for even the 
dullest knew it meant the independence for which the patriots had struggled 
throughout more than six suffering years. 

Congress assembled at an early hour and marched to the Dutch Lutheran 
Church, where all united in giving thanks to God for His great mercy and blessing. 
The aged doorkeeper of Congress was so overcome with joy that he dropped 
dead. Washington directed that divine service be held at the heads of the 
regiments, in gratitude for the " particular interposition of Providence in their 
behalf" 

THE NEWS IN ENGLAND. 

It would be difficult to describe the dismay caused in England when the 
news crossed the ocean. Lord North strode up and down his room, flinging 
his arms above his head and moaning, " My God ! it is all over! " While others 
were equally stricken by the tidings, America had many friends in that country 
who had opposed from the beginning the attempt to subjugate the colonies. 
Even those who voted for the war measures were now loud in insisting that no 
more blood and treasure should be wasted in continuing hostilities. They de- 
manded the removal of the ministers who advised the contrary, and the House 
of Commons declared by vote that anyone who favored the continuance of the 
war was a public enemy. 



TREATY OF PEACE AND ITS TERMS. 141 

While the surrender at Yorktown virtually ended the struggle, Washington 
was too wise to disband the army. No more battles took place, but the country 
remained in an unsettled condition for a long time, and the embers of hate often 
broke into flame. It is claimed that the last blood shed in the Revolution was 
that of Captain Wilmot, shot in a skirmish in September, 1782, at Stone Ferry. 

TREATY OF PEACE AND ITS TERMS. 

It had been agreed by both parties that hostilities should stop, and com- 
missioners were appointed to arrange the terms of peace. The preliminary 
articles were signed at Versailles, November 30, 1782, but the final treaty was 
not executed until September 3d of the following year. On April 19, 1783, 
the eighth anniversary of Lexington, Washington at the headquarters of the 
army ofiicially declared the war at an end. 

By the final treaty, England acknowledged the United States to be free 
and independent, with Canada as a boundary on the north, the Mississippi 
River on the west, and Florida, extending westward to the Mississippi, on the 
south. Spain, which still owned Louisiana west of the Mississippi, now received 
Florida from Great Britain. 

The American army was disbanded, and ofiicers and men went to their 
homes dissatisfied because they had not been paid for years. Washington pre- 
sented himself before Congress at Annapolis and resigned his commission. The 
British evacuated Savannah in July, 1782, Charleston in December, and New 
York City, their last post, November 25, 1783. The forts north of the Ohio, 
however, were held by English garrisons for about twelve years longer. 




I 



142 



CHAPTER VII. 



O^OANIZATION OK THE UNITED STATES. 

The Method of Government During the Revolution — Impending Anarchy — The State Boundaries- 
State Cessions of Land — Shays' Rebellion — Adoption of the Constitution — Its Leading Features- 
The Ordinance of 1787 — Formation of Parties — Election of the First President and Vice-President. 



War is not only a blight to mankind, 
but it inflicts wounds that can never heal 
and brings a train of woe and suffering 
which lasts for years. The social system 
is disorganized, industry checked, resources 
exhausted, and a debt entailed whose 
burden is felt for generations. The United 
States had won the priceless boon of in- 
dependence, but the States were exhausted 
and in the lowest depths of poverty. They 
were like those who, having lost every- 
thing, are compelled to begin life anew. 

WEAKNESS OF THE GOVERNMENT. 

While the war was under way, the 
States were held together by the one com- 
mon danger, and the Continental Con- 
gress managed the affairs of the Union, 
but the body was without any authority 
to govern, and whatever it did in that di- 
rection was only what the people permit- 
ted. The State governments were tangible, 
for State constitutions had been formed 
and the Legislatures received direct au- 

(EntrancetotheEstateofW.mamByrd,atWestover,Va) thority from the people. When they 

chose to disobey Congress they did so, 

and no penalty could be visited upon them. As the end of the war approached, 

the authority of the respective States increased and that of Congress dwindled 

until it was but a mere name and shadow. 

U43) 




144 ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED STATES. 

The Articles of Coufederation were agreed upon by Congress in 1777. 
They defined the respective powers of Congress and were not to go into effect 
until a majority of the States should agree to them. Within the following two 
years all yielded their assent except Maryland, which did so March 1, 1781. 

DISPUTE OVER STATE BOUNDARIES. 

The cause of this prolonged delay was the dispute over western territory. 
Few persons suspect the extent of the wrangling over the respective boundaries 
of the States. When the charters were granted by England, the western bound- 
aries of New Hampshire, Ehode Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, 
and Maryland were defined, and consequently they could not ask for an exten- 
sion of them. New York insisted that she had no western boundary. The 
remaining six States had their western boundaries named as the Pacific Ocean, 
which was at a distance that no one dreamed of at the time. They asserted 
that the transfer of Louisiana to Spain fixed the Mississippi Jliver as the limit 
in that direction. 

Among these claims none was so remarkable as that of Virginia. The 
most that her sister States asked was that their northern and southern bound- 
aries should run parallel to the westward, but Virginia insisted that her northern 
boundary extended northwest, which, if allowed, would have given her all of the 
present States of Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. 
Her claim was crossed by those of Massachusetts and Connecticut. 

The States whose western boundaries had been settled were indignant over 
the injustice of the claims of the others, for, since the whole thirteen assisted in 
wresting the territory from Great Britain, they asserted that all should share it. 
Some of the States sold lands in the west, whose ownership was disputed by 
other States, and Maryland, as intimated, refused her assent to the Articles of 
Confederation until assured that these western claims would be abandoned. 

HOW THE DISPUTE WAS SETTLED. 

It was evident that the only way out of the confusion was by the surrender 
of these claims, and New York set the example in 1780. In response to the 
earnest request of Congress, Virginia did the same in 1784, Massachusetts in 
1785, Connecticut in 1786, South Carolina in 1787, North Carolina in 1790, 
and Georgia in 1802. The result was that the western boundaries of the States 
named were fixed as they are to-day, and the United States came into the pos- 
session of a large territory. Connecticut held fast to a large strip of land in 
northeastern Ohio, which is still known as the Western Reserve. The same 
State, which had settled Wyoming in Pennsylvania, claimed it for a time, but 
finally gave it up. 



SHAYS' INSURRECTION. nr> 

It took but a short time to demonstrate the utter worthlessness of the Ar- 
ticles of Confederation. Congress, the central governing power, had no author- 
ity to lay taxes, punish crimes, or regulate foreign or domestic commerce. Its 
whole function was to give advice to the respective States, which, as might be 
supposed, paid little or no heed to it. Furthermore, the stronger States made 
laws inimical to the smaller ones, and Congress was powerless to remedy it. 
Naturally Great Britain oppressed American commerce, and there was no way 
of checking it. 

The prosperity which most of the people expected to follow peace did not 
appear. The Continental currency was not worth the paper it was printed on. 
Even at this late day, when a man uses the expression that an article is "not 
worth a Continental," it is understood to mean that it has no value at all. 

Washington's patriotism. 

The condition of no one was more pitiful than that of the heroes who had 
fought through the Revolution and won our independence. They went to their 
poverty-smitten homes in rags. While Washington was at his headquarters at 
Newburgh, in 1783, an anonymous paper was distributed among the troops 
calling upon them to overthrow the civil governments and obtain their rights 
by force. They even dared to ask Washington to become their king, but that 
great man spurned the offer in a manner that prevented it ever being repeated. 
But his sympathy was aroused, and he finally secured five years' full pay for 
the officers, and thus averted the danger. 

At that time the Northern and Middle States contained about a million and 
a half of 23eople and the Southern a million. Virginia had 400,000 inhabit- 
ants, and was the most populous, with Pennsylvania and Massachusetts next, 
each having 350,000. The present Empire State of New York was one of the 
weak States, the city containing about 14,000, Boston 20,000, and Philadelphia 
40,000. It was estimated that the debt of the respective States was $20,000,000 
and of the country $42,000,000. 

shays' insurrection. 

Rioting and disorder are always sure to follow so dei)lorable a condition of 
affairs. Daniel Shays, formerly a captain in the Continental army, headed a mob 
of 2,000 men in Massachusetts, who demanded the stoppage of the collection of 
taxes and the issuance of a large amount of paper money for general use. When 
they had dispersed the Supreme Court, sitting at Springfield, General Lincoln 
was sent with 4,000 troops to put down the rebellion. Lincoln placed the 
judges in their seats, and then, when the rioters were about to attack him, he 

10 



146 ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED STATES. 

gave them a volley. The rioters scattered and the rebellion ended. Fourteen 
of the ringleaders were afterward sentenced to death, but were reprieved and 
finally pardoned. 

THE MEETING AT ANNAPOLIS. 

Shays' rebellion was one of the best things that could have happened, for it 
showed the country more clearly than before that it was on the verge of anarchy, 
and that the remedy must not be delayed. Long before this, Washington com- 
prehended the serious peril of the country, and he was in continual consultation 
with men whose worth and counsel he valued. The result was that a meeting of 
commissioners from Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New 
York met at Annapolis in September, 1786. They held an earnest discussion, 
but as only a minority of the States were represented, nothing positive could be 
done, and an adjournment was had with a recommendation that each State should 
send delegates to meet in Philadelphia in May, 1787. The prestige of Wash- 
ington's name gave so much weight to the recommendation that at the appointed 
date all the States were represented except Rhode Island. 

The wisdom of Washington was again manifest in a letter which he wrote 
some months before tlie meeting of the Constitutional Convention, and which 
contained the following: 

" We have errors to correct. We have probably had too good an opinion 
of human nature in forming our confederation. Experience has taught us that 
without the intervention of a coercive power, men will not adopt and carry into 
execution measures best calculated for their own good. I do not conceive we can 
exist long as a nation without having lodged somewhere a power that will per- 
vade the whole Union in as energetic a manner as the authority of the State 
governments extend over the several States. ... I am told that even respect- 
able characters speak of a monarchical form of government without horror. 
From thinking proceeds speaking ; thence acting is but a single step. But how 
irrevocable and tremendous ! What a triumph for our enemies to verify their 
predictions! What a triumph for the advocates of despotism to find that we 
are incapable of governing ourselves, and that systems founded on the basis of 
equal liberty are merely ideal and fallacious ! " 

When the news reached Washington of the disorders in New England, he 
was greatly troubled. "What stronger evidence can be given," he asked, 'of 
the want of energy in our government than these disorders? If there is not a 
power in it to check them, what security has a man for his life, liberty, or projj- 
erty ? The consequences of a bad or inefficient government are too obvious to 
be dwelt upon. Thirteen sovereigns pulling against one another, and all tugging 
at the federal head, will soon bring ruin on the whole ; whereas, a liberal and 
energetic constitution, well checked and well watched to prevent encroach- 



THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF 1787. 



147 



ments, might restore us to that degree of respectability and consequence to which 
we had the fairest prospect of attaining." 

THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF 1787. 

Washington was placed at the head of the delegation from Virginia. Al- 
though he hojjed that he would be permitted to spend the rest of his days in the 
domestic quiet of Mount Vernon, his patriotism would not permit him to decline, 
even though he saw the certainty that the action would bring him forward once 




SENATE CHAMBEE. 



more into public afiairs. Only a part of the delegates met in Philadelphia, 
May 14, 1787, and an adjournment was had from day to day until the 25th, 
when, a majority being present, the convention organized and unanimously chose 
Washington as chairman. For four months it sat with closed doors, meeting in 
the same room in Independence Hall where the Declaration of Independence 
was signed, and where the chair is still preserved in which Washington sat. 

What an assemblage of great and noble men, all of whose names have be- 
come historical ! With the peerless Washington at the head, there were James 



148 ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Madison, afterward President of the United States ; Benjamin Franklin, Alex- 
ander Hamilton, Benjamin "West, Edmund Randolph, Robert Morris, Gouv- 
erneur' Morris, Sherman, Clymer, Read, and Dickinson. It may well be 
imagined that among those men the discussions, which were continued several 
hours daily, were of the most interesting nature. Inevitably there was a diversity 
of views, and the arguments at times grew warm, but with such an aggregation 
of statesmanship and wisdom, the best results were certain. Steadily the 
wonderful Constitution was moulded into shape, and on the 17th of September 
was signed by all the delegates except Randolph and Mason, of Virginia, and 
Gerry, of Massachusetts. It was then submitted to Congress, which forwarded 
it to the respective States for acceptance or rejection — the assent of nine being 
necessary to make it operative. 

So important a document was sure to elicit earnest discussion and many able 
men opposed its adoption. At that early day apj^eared the germs of the pres- 
ent political parties. The problem was as to the right division of power between 
the national or central government and the respective States. Those who 
favored the widest latitude to the States were called Republicans, while their 
opponents were given the name of Federalists. The views of the latter pre- 
dominated in the main, though the Constitution was really a compromise 
between its supporters and opjDonents. 

The beneficent features of the instrument were so manifest that its adop- 
tion soon followed. On June 21, 1788, New Hampshire ratified it, and, 
being the ninth State, its provisions became operative throughout the Union. 
North Carolina and Rhode Island did not assent, and the Constitution went 
into effect without their vote. These two States had issued a good deal of paper 
money, and disliked the Constitution because it forbade such action. The oppo- 
sition of the other States was caused by the fear that too much jjower was con- 
ferred upon the central government. To remove this not wholly unreasonable 
objection, the first ten amendments were adopted and ratified in 1791. 

FEATURES OF THE CONSTITUTION. 

The Constitution supplied the great requirement without which the gov- 
ernment itself would have been a nullity : the power to act supplanted the 
power simply to advise. The government consists of three departments : a leg- 
islative or Congress, which makes the laws ; an executive department, consisting 
of the President and his officers, to execute the laws made by Congress ; and a 
judiciary department (the Federal courts), which decides disputed questions 
under the laws. The Constitution is our supreme law and must be obeyed by 
the general government, the State governments, and the people ; if not, the gen- 
eral government j^unishes the offender. 



il 



FEATURES OF THE CONSTITUTION. 



149 



Congress, or the legislative department, consists of two branches, the Sen- 
ate and House of Representatives, Each State, no matter what its population, 
is entitled to two Senators, who serve for six years and are elected by the respec- 
tive State Legislatures ; the Representatives are apportioned according to the 
population, are voted for directly by the people, and serve for two years. In 
this admirable manner, each State is protected by its Senators against any 
encroachment upon its rights, while the populous States receive the recognition 
to which they are entitled through the House of Representatives. 

Congress, the two branches acting together, lay taxes, borrow money, regu- 




HOUSE OF BEPKESENTATIVES. 



late commerce, coin money, establish postoffices, declare war, raise and support 
armies and navies, and employ militia to suppress insurrections. All States are 
forbidden to do any of these things, except to impose their own taxes, borrow 
for themselves, and employ their own militia. A majority of each house is 
enough to pass any bill, unless the President within ten days thereafter vetoes 
the act (that is, objects to it), when a two-thirds vote of each branch is necessary 
to make it a law. Treaties made by the President do not go into effect until 
approved by a two-thirds vote of the Senate. 

The executive department is vested in the President, chosen every four 
years by electors, who are voted for by the people. The President is com- 
mander-in-chief of the army and navy and appoints the majority of officers, it 



150 ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED STATES. 

being necessary that most of the appointments shall be confirmed by the Senate. 
In case of misconduct, the President is to be impeached (charged with miscon- 
duct) by the House of Representatives and tried by the Senate. If convicted 
and removed, or if he should die or resign or be unable to perform the duties 
of his ofiice, the Vice-President takes his place and becomes President. With 
this excej^tion, the Vice-President presides over the Senate, with no power to 
vote except in case of a tie. No provision was made for a successor in the 
event of the death of the Vice-President, but in 1886 the Presidential Succes- 
sion Law was passed, which provides that, in case of the death or disability of 
the President and Vice-President, the order of succession shall be the secretaries 
of State, of the treasury, of war, the attorney-general, the postmaster-general, 
and the secretaries of the navy and of the interior. 

The judiciary department, or power to decide upon the constitutionality of 
laws, was given to one supreme court and such inferior courts as Congress should 
establish. The judges are appointed by the President and Senate and hold 
office during life or good behavior. The State courts have the power of appeal 
to the supreme court of the United States, whose decision is final, the questions 
being necessarily based upon offenses against any law of Congress, or upon the 
doubtful meaning of a law, or the doubt of the constitutional power of Congress 
to pass a law. 

At the time of the adoption of the Constitution, three-fifths of the slaves 
were to be counted in calculating the population for the Representatives. 
Fugitive slaves were to be arrested in the States to which they had fled. New 
Territories were to be governed by Congress, which body admits the new States 
as they are formed. Each State is guaranteed a republican form of government, 
and the vote of three-fourths of the States can change the Constitution through 
the means of amendments. The provisions regarding slavery, as a matter of 
course, lost their effect upon the abolishment of the institution at the close of the 
Civil War. 

THE ORDINA]VfCE OF 1787. 

Congress remained in session in New York, while the Philadelphia conven- 
tion was at work upon the Constitution, and during that period organized a ter- 
ritorial government for the immense region northwest of the Ohio, which belonged 
to the United States. The enterprising nature of the American peoj^le asserted 
itself, and hundreds of emigrants began making their way into that fertile sec- 
tion, where the best of land could be had for the asking. But the Indians were 
fierce and warred continually against the settlers. Most of these had been 
soldiers in the Revolution, and they generally united for mutual protection. 
The Ohio Company was formed in 1787, and, in order to assist it. Congress 
passed the Ordinance of 1787, of which mention has been made. 



II 



THE FIRST PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 151 

Slavery was forever forbidden in the Territory northwest of the Ohio, and 
the inhabitants were guaranteed full religious freedom, trial by jury, and equal 
political and civil privileges. The governors of the Territory were to be 
appointed by Congress until the population was sufficient to permit the organi- 
zation of five separate States, which States should be the equal in every respect 
of the original thirteen. From the Territory named the powerful and prosper- 
ous States of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin were afterward 
formed. 

SETTLEMENT OP THE WEST. 

The Indian titles to 17,000,000 acres of land in the Territory had been ex- 
tinguished by treaties with the leading tribes, despite which the red men con- 
tested the advancing settlers with untiring ferocity. Flatboats were attacked on 
their way down the Ohio, and the families massacred; block-houses were 
assailed, and the smoke of the settlers' burning cabins lit the skies at night. The 
pioneer path to the fertile region was crimsoned by the blood of those who hewed 
their way through the western wilderness. 

Until formed into States, the region was known as The Northwestern Ter- 
ritory. In 1788, Rufus Putnam, of Massachusetts, at the head of forty pioneers, 
founded the settlement of Marietta, and within the same year 20,000 people 
erected their homes in the region that had been visited by Daniel Boone and 
others nearly twenty years before. 

No sooner had the ninth State ratified the Constitution than the Congress of 
the Confederation named March 4, 1789, as the day on which, in the city of 
New York, the new government should go into effect. 

The time had come for the selection of the first President of the United 
States, and it need not be said that the name of only one man — Washington — 
was in people's thoughts. So overmastering was the personality of that great 
man that he was the only one mentioned, and what is most significant of all, not 
a politician or leader in the country had the effrontery to hint that he had 
placed himself "in the hands of his friends" in the race for the presidency. 
Had he done so, he would have been buffeted into eternal obscurity. 

Whatever may be said of the ingratitude of republics, it can never be 
charged that the United States was ungrateful to Washington. The people ap- 
preciated his worth from the first, and there was no honor they would not have 
gladly paid him. 

THE FIRST PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 

The date of the 4th of March was fixed without special reason for launching 
the new government, and it has been the rule ever since, though it often falls 
upon the most stormy and unpleasant day of the whole year. Some of the 
States were so slow in sending their representatives to New York, that more than 



152 



ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED STATES. 



a month passed before a quorum of both houses appeared. When the electoral 
vote for the President was counted, it was found that every one of the sixty-nine 
had been cast for Washington. The law was that the person receiving the next 
highest number became Vice-President. This vote was : John Adams, of Mas- 
sachusetts, 34; John Jay, of New York, 9; K. H. Harrison, of Maryland, 6; 
John Rutledge, of South Carolina, 6; John Hancock, of Massachusetts, 4; 
George Clinton, of New York, 3; Samuel Huntington, of Connecticut, 2; John 
Milton, of Georgia, 2; James Armstrong, of Georgia, Benjamin Lincoln, of 
Massachusetts, and Edward Telfair, of Georgia, 1 vote each. Vacancies (votes 
not cast). 

John Adams, of Massachusetts, therefore, became the first Vice-President. 




AS OI.D INDIAN FABM-HOUBE. 



II 



CHAPTER VIII. 

ADMINISTRATIONS OK WASHINGTON, JOHN 
ADAJvIS, AND JEKKERSON— 1789-1S09. 

Washington — His Inauguration as First President of the United States — Alexander Hamilton — His Suc- 
cess at the Head of the Treasury Department — The Obduracy of Rhode Island — Establishment 
of the United States Bank — Passage of a TariflF Bill — P^stablishment of a Mint — The Plan of a 
Federal Judiciary — Admission of Vermont, Kentucky, and Tennessee — Benjamin Franklin — Troubles 
with the Western Indians — Their Defeat by General Wayne — Removal of the National Capital Pro- 
vided for — The Whiskey Insurrection — The Course of ''Citizen Genet" — Jay's Treaty — Reelection 
of Washington — Resignation of Jefferson and Hamilton — Washington's Farewell Address — Estab- 
lishment of the United States Military Academy at West Point — The Presidential Election of I79G — 
John Adams — Prosperity of the Country — Population of the Country in 1790 — Invention of the 
Cotton Gin — Troubles with France — War on the Ocean — Washington Appointed Commander-in- 
Chief — Peace Secured — The Alien and Sedition Laws — The Census of 180U — The Presidential Elec- 
tion of 1800 — The Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution^Thomas Jefferson — Admission of Ohio 
—The Indiana Territorj' — The Purchase of Louisiana — Its Immense Area — Abolishment of the 
Slave Trade — War with Tripoli — The Lewis and Clark Expedition — Alexander Hamilton Killed in a 
Duel by Aaron Burr — The First Steamboat on the Hudson — The First Steamer to Cross the Atlantic 
— England's Oppressive Course Toward the United States — Outrage by the British Ship Leander — 
Tlie Affair of the Leopard and Chesapeake — Passage of the Embargo Act — The Presidential Elec- 
tion of 1808. 




i' :tAefr1 Si/i'' Pe'f QlrrjC; 



WASHINGTON. 

The name of Washington will always 
stand jjeerless and unapproachable on the 
pages of human history. In great crises. 
Heaven raises up men for its appointed 
work. As soldier, statesman, and patriot, 
he combined in his own personality the full 
requirements of the prodigious task than 
which no greater was ever laid upon the 
shoulders of man. Through trials, suffer- 
l ings, discouragements, disappointments, 

MAHY BALL, ArTER-WAHD THE , .,, .... 

MOTHEB OF GEOHGE WASHINGTON, abuse, ill treatment, opposition, and misun- 

(153) 



154 



WASHINGTON, ADAMS, AND JEFFERSON. 



derstandings, he never lost heart ; his lofty patriotism was never quenched ; his 
sublime faith in God and the destiny of his country never wavered, and, seeing 
with the eye of undimmed faith the end from the beginning, he advanced with 
serene majesty and unconquerable i-esolve to the conclusion and perfection of his 
mighty work. 

It has been said of Washington that he embodied within himself the genius 
of sanity and the sanity of genius. We can conceive of Lincoln, Grant, or any 
other great man losing his mind, but like the snowy crest of a mountain, rising 
far above the plain, he stood by himself, and it is impossible to think of him as 

losing even in the slightest degree 




the magnificent attributes of his 
personality. As has been stated, his 
was the single example in our his- 
tory in which the fate of our coun- 
try rested with one man. Had he 
fallen in battle at any time between 
Lexington and Yorktown, the Revo- 
lution would have stopped and inde- 
pendence been postponed indefinite- 
ly. But when Heaven selects its 
agent, it shields him in impenetrable 
armor, and, though Washington was 
exposed to innumerable personal 
perils in the wilderness and in battle, 
when his comrades were smitten with 
death around him, he never received 
the slightest wound, and lived to see 
his work finished, when, in the quiet 
of his own home at Mount Vernon, 
he lay down, folded his arms, and 
passed to his reward. 
George Washington was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, Febru- 
ary 22, 1732. There is a general misunderstanding as to his family. He had 
three half-brothers, one half-sister, and three brothers and two sisters. His half- 
brothers and sister, children of Augustine Washington and Jane Butler, were : 
Butler (died in infancy), Lawrence, Augustine, and Jane. His brothers and 
sisters, children of Augustine Washington and Mary Ball, were : Betty, 
Samuel, John Augustine, Charles, and Mildred (died in infancy). 

Washington's father died when the son was eleven years old, and his train- 
ing devolved upon his mother, a woman of rare force of character. He re- 



GEOKOE WASHINGTON. 

(1732-1799.) Two terms, 17sa-1797. 



^^S 



WASHINGTON. 



155 



ceived a common school education, but never became learned in books. He 
early showed a liking for military matters, was fond of the sports of boyhood, 
and was manly, truthful, and so eminently fair in everytliing, that his playmates 
generally selected him as umpire and cheerfully accepted his decisions. He 
became an expert surveyor, and, at the age of sixteen, was employed by Lord 
Fairfax to survey his immense estate. The work, which continued for three 
years and was of the most difficult nature, attended by much hardship and 
danp-pr, Tras performed to the full satisfaction of his employer. 




INAUGURATION OF WASHINGTON. 



Washington grew to be a magnificent specimen of physical manhood. He 
was eix feet two inches tall, with a large frame and a strength surpassing that of 
two ordinary men. No one in the neighborhood was his equal in horseman- 
ship, running, leaping, throwing, swimming, and all manner of athletic sports. 
He was of the highest social rank, wealthy, and a vestryman and member of 
the Episcopal Church. He was rather fond of pomp and ceremony, somewhat 
reserved in manner, and at times seemed cold and distant, but with a character 
that was without flaw or stain. It has already been said that he served through- 



156 WASHINGTON, ADAMS, AND JEFFERSON. 

out the Revolution without accepting a penny for his services. He kept an 
account of all he received from the government, but sometimes forgot to note 
what he paid out. In such cases he balanced his books by paying the deficit 
from his own pocket, so that it may be truthfully said he not only won inde- 
pendence for his country, but paid for the privilege of doing so. 

Washington from his first services in the French and Indian War was 
so identified with the history of his country that the account of one includes 
that of the other. Having told of his election to the presidency, it, therefore, 
remains to give the principal incidents of his administration. 

Washington's inauguration. 

A special messenger reached Mount Vernon with news of Washington's 
election on the 14th of April, and two days later he set out for New York. 
The journey was one continual ovation, special honors being shown him at Bal- 
timore, Philadelphia, Trenton, and New York, where they attained their cul- 
mination. He arrived on the 23d of April, and the inauguration took place a 
week later. Amid impressive ceremonies, the oath was administered by Robert 
R. Livingston, the chancellor of the State of New York, in Federal Hal), on 
the present site of the sub-treasury building. Washington stood in a balcony 
of the senate chamber, in full view of the great multitude on the outside. He 
showed considerable embarrassment, but was cheered to the echo and was greatly 
touched by the manifestations of the love of his fellow-countrymen. 

At the opening of his administration, Washington became ill and no im- 
portant business was done until September. On the 10th of that month, Con- 
gress created a department of foreign affairs, a treasury department, and a 
department of war. Thomas Jefferson was nominated to the first, Alexander 
Hamilton to the second, and General Henry Knox to the third. All were admi- 
rable appointments. 

ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 

Hamilton, the secretary of the treasury, was one of the most remarkable 
men identified with the history of our country. He was born in the West 
Indies in 1757, and, while a child, displayed extraordinary ability. When 
fifteen years old, he was sent to New York City and entered King's (now Colum- 
bia) College. A patriotic speech made when he was only seventeen years old 
held his hearers spellbound by its eloquence. At twenty, he organized a com- 
pany of cavalry and j^erformed excellent service on Long Island and at White 
Plains. Washington was so impressed by his brilliancy that he placed him on 
his staff and made him his military secretary. Many of the best papers of the 
commander-in-chief received their finishino; touches from the master hand of 
Hamilton. He was in Congress in 1782-1783, and helped to frame the Consti- 



HAMILTON'S WISE MANAGEMENT OF THE FINANCES. 



157 



tution. When the New York Convention assembled to ratify the new Consti- 
tution, three-fourths of its members were strongly opposed to it, but Hamilton 
by the sheer force of his eloquent logic won them over and secured the assent 
of the State to the adoption of the Constitution. He was one of our most 
brilliant statesmen and the foremost Federalist of his time. 



Hamilton's wise management of the finances. 

The greatest problem which confronted the country was that of finance, 
and Hamilton grasped it with the skill of a master. Hardly had he received 
his commission, when Congress called 
upon him for a plan to provide for 
the public debt and to revive the 
dead national credit. Hamilton's 
first answer was that the country 
would begin by being honest, and 
that every dollar of the confedera- 
tion, then amounting almost to $80,- 
000,000, should be paid, the United 
States assuming all debts due to 
American citizens, as well as the 
war debt of each State. This bold 
and creditable ground greatly im- 
proved public credit, before any pro- 
vision was made for the payment of 
the vast debt. 

Hamilton's plan was to fund 
the entire debt and issue new certifi- 
cates. It was vehemently opposed, 
especially the provision that the 
State debts should be assumed by the 

1 , , 1 , ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 

general government; but solely by {nsT-isuij. 

his wonderful ability he carried the measure through Congress. The debate 
sharpened the lines between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists or Republi- 
cans. 

It will be remembered that at that time neither North Carolina nor Rhode 
Island had adopted the Constitution. The former called a convention, and, on 
the 13th of November, 1789, ratified it, but Rhode Island continued to sulk until 
Providence and Newport withdrew from the State, and Massachusetts and Con- 
necticut made ready to parcel the State between them. This frightened her, 
and, on May 29, 1790, she joined her sisters. 




158 WASHINGTON, ADA3I8, AND JEFFERSON. 

The following year Hamilton gave another proof of his power by carrying 
through Congress, in the face of the strongest opjjosition, a measure for the 
relief of the financial straits of the government. The only banks in the 
country were one each in Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, all of which 
were State institutions. He advocated the establishment of a bank in which the 
government should be one-fifth owner of the capital stock of $10,000,000 and a 
preferred borrower to the same amount. It was to be under private manage- 
ment. In the face of the strong Disposition, the act creating it was passed, and 
it was chartered for twenty years. The subscriptions required that one-fourth 
should be paid in specie and the rest in six per cent, certificates of the bank. 
Within two hours after the subscription books were opened the entire amount of 
Btock was subscribed. The United States Bank was destined to play an im- 
portant part in national affairs in after years. 

PASSAGE OF A TARIFF BILL. 

Having provided the means for funding the debt and for borrowing money, 
it yet remained to find some way of earning the money. The method was so 
apparent that Congress lost no time in passing a tariff bill. A law placed a duty 
on imported and domestic spirits, and, in February, 1792, a protective tariff bill 
was enacted. This provided that the materials from which goods are manufac- 
tured should not be taxed, while articles competing with those made in this 
country were prohibited. A mint was also established in Philadelphia for coin- 
ing money. 

THE FEDERAL JUDICIARY ORGANIZED. 

The plan for the Federal judiciary was perfected on the lines proposed by 
Ellsworth, of Connecticut. The national judiciary consisted of a supreme court, 
having a chief justice and five associate justices, who were to hold two sessions 
annually at the seat of the Federal government. Specified jurisdiction was given 
to the circuit and district courts, and each State was made a district ; the Terri- 
tories of Maine and Kentucky were provided for in the same manner, and the 
remaining Territories were grouped into three circuits. When the matter in dis- 
pute amounted to $2,000, an appeal could be taken from the lower courts to the 
supreme court. The President was to appoint a marshal in each district, 
possessing the general powers of a sheriff, and the interests of the government 
were placed in the hands of a district attorney. 

The first chief justice of the United States was John Jay, of New York, 
while Edmund Randolijh, of Virginia, was made attorney-general. The asso- 
ciate judges were John Rutledge, of South Carolina; James Wilson, of Penn- 
sylvania ; William Cushing, of Massachusetts ; Robert H. Harrison, of Mary- 
land; and John Blair, of Virginia. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 



109 



Vermont was admitted to the Union on March 4, 1791 ; Kentucky, June 1, 



1792 ; and Ten 
years later, 
were all that 
the presidency 
B e n j aniin 
Philadelphia, 
age of eighty- 
was one of the 



nessee exactly two 
These three States 
were formed during 
of Washington. 
Franklin died in 
April 17, 1790, at the 
four years. Since he 
greatest of all Ameri- 




cans, he is entitled 
to fitting notice. 
He was born in 
Boston in 1706, 
and was the young- 
est of seventeen 
children. His father was a tallow 
chandler and soap boiler, a trade 
which Benjamin detested. He 
was apprenticed to his brother, 
who was a jirinter, and while a 
boy gave evidence of his remarka- 
ble keenness and brilliant common 
eense. Rebelling against the discipline of his brother, he ran away, tramping 



BEN FHANKLIW MOULDING CANDLES IN HIS 
FATHER'S SHOP. 



160 



WASHINGTON, ADA3I8, AND JEFFERSON. 



most of the distance to Philadelphia. There he secured a situation and 
showed himself so skillful and tasteful a printer that he never lacked for 
work. He established a paper in Philadelphia in 1729, and began the publica- 
tion of Poor RicharcVs Almanac in 1732, the year in which Washington was 
born. The wit, homely philosophy, and keen penetration shown by Franklin 
attracted wide attention and gave the almanac an enormous circulation, which 
lasted as long as it was published. Many of his proverbs are still popular and 
widely quoted. 

In 1753, he was appointed deputy postmaster of the British colonies, and, 
as a delegate to the Albany Convention in 1754, proposed an important plan for 
colonial union. From 1757 to 1762, and again from 1764 to the Eevolution, he 

was agent of Pennsylvania in England; 
part of the time also for Massachusetts^ 
New Jersey, and Georgia. Returning 
to Philadelphia in 1775, he was at once 
chosen a delegate to the Continental 
Congress. Few persons, in looking at 
his handsome signature on the Declara- 
tion of Independence, would suspect that 
it was written when he was seventy yeara 
old. It has been shown that he was one 
of the committee of live who drew up 
the Declaration, and in the following 
autumn was sent to Paris to join Arthur 
Lee and Silas Deane. His services 
there were of the highest importance. 
He had a leading part in the negotia- 
tions of the treaty of peace in 1783, 
after which he negotiated a favorable 
treaty with Russia. He returned to America in 1785, and was chosen president 
of Pennsylvania, and again in 1786 and 1787. He was an influential member 
of the Constitutional convention, and probably was second to Washington in 
popularity. His funeral in Philadelphia was attended by more than 20,000 
persons. 

Franklin's researches in electricity, though slight as compared with the 
discoveries since made by Edison, Tesla, and others, extended his fame to Europe. 
By means of the kite which he sent aloft in a thunderstorm, he proved that the 
lightning in the atmosphere is identical with that developed by frictional 
electricity. This discovery led to the invention of the lightning-rod for build- 
ings, which has been the means of saving property beyond estimate. He was 




FHANKLIN'b GRAVE. 



WAYNE'S VICTORY OVER THE INDIANS. 161 

the inventor also of an economical stove and other useful contrivances. He 
made himself wealthy, and the fortune which he left at his death was the foun- 
dation of the splendid institution of learning known as the University of Penn- 
sylvania. 

DISASTROUS EXPEDITION AGAINST THE WESTERN INDIANS. 

Returning to the history of Washington's presidency, mention must be 
made of the troubles with the western Indians, who, as has been stated, fought 
relentlessly against the advance of civilization into their hunting grounds. 
Between 1783 and 1790, 1,500 persons were killed by the red men near the 
Ohio. It being clear that peace could not be secured except by a thorough 
chastisement of the Indians, Congress gave General Arthur St. Clair, governor 
of the Northwest Territory, authority to call for 500 militia from Pennsyl- 
vania and a thousand from Kentucky, to which were added 400 regulars. 
Under General Harraar they marched against the Indian villages. 

In the campaign the Indians outgeneraled Harmar, who, after inflicting 
some damage, was defeated and lost 200 men in killed and wounded. The defeat 
encouraged the savages, who became more aggressive than ever. General St. 
Clair organized a second expedition consisting of 2,000 men, including cavalry 
and artillery, with which in October, 1793, he entered the Indian country, only 
to suffer a more disastrous defeat than General Harmar, and in which the losses 
were so dreadful that the news caused consternation in Philadelphia. Washing- 
ton had cautioned St. Clair against the very mistakes he made, and he com- 
pletely lost his temper. He paced up and down his room, giving such expres- 
sions to his feelings that those around him were awed into silence. By-and-by, 
he seemed to regret the outburst, and, when the trembling St. Clair some time 
later presented himself, the President received him without reproach ; but St. 
Clair was overwhelmed by his disgrace and resigned his command. 

Wayne's victory over the Indians. 
Washington determined that no more blunders should be made, an(^ ap- 
pointed Anthony Wayne to the command of the next expedition. He raised a 
large force, moved cautiously, and took every precaution against surprise, as 
Washington had told him to do. He had 4,000 men under his command, and the 
consummate woodcraft and tricks of the red men failed to deceive him. At 
Fallen Timbers, near the present city of Toledo, he met a large force, August 
20, 1794, of Canadians and Indians, completely routed them, killed a great 
many, with slight loss to himself, and so crushed the confederation of tribes 
that they gave no more trouble for a long time. A year later, 1,100 chiefs and 
wai'riors met the United States commissioners at Fort Greenville and signed a 

treaty of peace, by which they ceded to the government an immense tract of 
11 



162 WASHINGTON, ADAMS, AND JEFFERSON. 

land lying in the present States of Michigan and Indiana. An impetus was 
given to western emigration, which suffered no interruption for many years. 

THE WHISKEY INSUREECTION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

One of the acts of Congress was to declare that Philadelphia was to be the 
national caj^ital for ten years, from 1790, when it was to be removed to a point 
on the Potomac River, where the city of Washington now stands. One meas- 
ure which Hamilton induced Congress to pass caused trouble. It doubled the 
duty on imj^orted spirits and taxed those distilled in this country. So much 
dissatisfaction appeared in North Carolina and Pennsylvania that the law was 
modified, but it did not end the discontent. The officers sent to Pennsylvania 
to collect the taxes were resisted and the militia sympathized with the rioters, 
whose numbers swelled to 7,000 under arms. Wlien they began to talk of ap- 
pealing to England, Washington lost patience and sent a large body of Virginia, 
Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey militia to the section. They were 
under the command of General Henry Lee, governor of Virginia, and arrived 
on the scene in October, 1794. Order was soon restored, and the ringleaders, 
expressing sorrow for their acts, were not punished. This seems to be the rule 
in our country, except that repentance on the part of criminals is not required. 

"citizen genet." 

The action of "Citizen Genet" caused a flurry during Washington's presi- 
dency. The "Reign of Terror" had begun in France, where the most appalling 
revolution in history had taken place. The tyranny of the rulers had driven 
the people to frenzied desperation, and, overthrowing the government, their 
massacres were not checked until literally hundreds of thousands of people were 
killed. Since their rebellion was begun against tyranny, and France had 
helped us in our war for indejoendence, there was general sympathy for the 
people in our own country, though everyone was shocked by the deeds that 
soon horrified the civilized world. 

Having established a government, the revolutionists sent Edward Charles 
Genet to this country as its representative. He was warmly welcomed at Charles- 
ton, where he landed in April, 1793. He was too discourteous to go to Phila- 
delphia to present his credentials, and began enlisting recruits for France and 
intriguing for an alliance with us. Since France was fighting England, Aus- 
tria, Pinissia, Sardinia, and Holland, it can be understood how desirable such an 
alliance would have been to her. 

Washington was too wise to be misled, and he issued a proclamation of 
neutrality, forbidding citizens of the United States to equip vessels to carry on 
hostilities against the belligerent powers. Genet paid no attention to this, but 



JAY'S TREATY. 



163 



kept on enlisting men and fitting out cruisers in American waters. His course 
became so intolerable that Washington demanded his recall. This demand was 
complied with, and he was ordered to return home. No one knew better than 
he that if he showed himself in France he would lose his head. So he stayed 
in this country until his death in 1834. 

jay's treaty. 
The course of England became so unjust toward the commerce, because of 
her war with France, that Chief Justice John Jay, in May, 1794, was sent as 
envoy extraordinary to that country 
to demand redress. A treaty was 
agreed upon and ratified by the Sen- 
ate in June, 1795, which provided 
that the British garrisons should be 
withdrawn from the western posts 
by June 1, 1796 ; free inland navi- 
gation upon lakes and rivers was 
guaranteed to both nations, except 
that the United States was excluded 
from the territory of the Hudson 
Bay Comj^any ; British vessels were 
admitted to the rivers and harbors 
on our sea-coast, but our shipping 
was shut out from the rivers and 
harbors of the British provinces, with 
the exception of small vessels trading 
between Montreal and Quebec; our 
northeastern boundary was to be 
fixed by a commission ; the payments 
of debts incurred before the war were 
guaranteed to British creditors, if such 
debts were collectible by an American creditor ; Great Britain was to pay for losses 
resulting from irregular captures by her cruisers; citizens of either country were 
allowed to hold landed possessions in the territory of the other; private property 
was not to be confiscated in time of war; trade between the United States and 
the West Indies was free to the vessels of both nations, but American vessels 
were forbidden to carry West Indian products from the islands or from the 
States to any other part of the world. The last clause was to be in force only 
two years, when further negotiation was to take place. In addition, the two 
years' limit was applicable to the right of American vessels to trade between the 













J 






/ 


1 








-5^ 




■'^. 



CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN JAY. 



164 WASHINGTON, ADAMS, AND JEFFERSON. 

East Indies and the United States, but in time of war they were not to take 
thither any rice or military stores ; free commerce was established between the 
British dominions in Europe and the United States; the regulation of duties was 
provided for, as well as the appointment of consuls and the rules of blockade ; 
privateering was regulated; what was contraband of war was defined, and it was 
agreed that piracy should be punished ; ships of war could enter the ports of 
either country; criminals escaping from one country to the other were to be sur- 
rendered ; and, in the event of war between the two countries, citizens in 
hostile territory were not to be molested. 

Although this treaty possessed many good points, and was the best obtain- 
able by our envoy, it gave so many advantages to Great Britain that it roused 
bitter enmity in this country. Public meetings were held in the leading cities, 
where it was denounced as cowardly and made for the express purpose of avoid- 
ing a war with England. The feeling rose so high that Jay was burned in 
effigy, Hamilton was assaulted at a public meeting, the British minister in- 
sulted, and even Washington himself treated with disresj^ect. Better judgment 
prevailed, when the passions cooled, and it is now admitted that Jay's treaty, 
when all the circumstances are considered, was a commendable one. 

SECOND ELECTION OF WASHINGTON. 

It was Washington's wish to retire to private life on conclusion of his first 
term, but he could not disregard the demand from all quartei's. No comjietitor 
appeared in the field against him, and for a second time he was unanimously 
elected. His vote was 132; that cast for the candidates for the minor office 
being, John Adams, Federalist, 77; George Clinton, of New York, Republican, 
50; Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia, Republican, 4; Aaron Burr, of New York, 
Republican, 1 ; vacancies, 3. This vote made John Adams again Vice-Presi- 
dent. 

Since Jefferson was the leader of the Republicans (or as now called the 
Democrats), and Hamilton of the Federalists (afterward the Whigs), and the 
two, as members of Washington's cabinet, wei'e able and aggressive, they were 
continually disputing. Sometimes they sorely tried Washington's jDatience, who, 
appreciating the ability of both, often had hard work to prevent an open rup- 
ture. On the last day in 1793, Jefferson resigned his office as secretary of 
foreign afftiirs and retired to private life at Monticello, Virginia. A year later 
Hamilton resigned as minister of finance. Through his efforts public credit had 
been restored, and industry and trade had revived. He well deserved the 
eloquent tribute of Daniel Webster: "He smote the rock of the national 
resources, and abundant streams of revenues burst forth. He touched the dead 
corpse of public credit, and it sprung upon its feet" 



RETIREMENT OF WASHINGTON. 



165 



As Washington's second term drew to a close, a universal demand was 
made that he should serve again. Despite tlie fact that the two great political 
parties were fairly organized, and each contained many able men, no one would have 
had the temerity to offer himself as a competitor ; but he was growing old, his 
strength had been worn out in the service of his country, and the rest he 
yearned for could no longer be denied him. He, therefore, issued his immortal 
Farewell Address to his countrymen and withdrew to Mount Vernon, where he 
peacefully passed away December 14, 1799, mourned by the whole country and 
revered by the civilized world. 

The Farewell Address contains counsel that can never lose its value to 
America. After thanking his fellow-countrymen for the conlidence they had 
always shown in 
him, and the sup- 
port he had re- 
ceived from them, 
he said that the 
love of liberty was 
so interwoven with 
every ligament of 
their hearts that 
no recommendation 
of his was necessaiy 
to fortify that at- 
tachment. The 
unity of govern- 
ment, by which 
tliev were made one "Washington's bedroom, mt. veknon, in which he died 

peoj^le, had also become very dear to them. 

"It is justly so," he said, "for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real 
independence — the support of your tranquillity at home, your peace abroad; of 
your safety, of your prosperity ; of that very liberty which you so highly prize. 
But, as it is easy to foresee that, from different causes and from different quar- 
ters, much pains wil. be taken, many artifices be employed to weaken in your 
minds the conviction of this truth — as this is the point in your political fortress 
airainst which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most con- 
stantly and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed — it is of 
infinite moment that you should propei-ly estimate the immense value of your 
national union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should 
cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming your- 
selves to think and speak of it as the palladium of your political safety and 




166 



WASHINGTON, ADAMS, AND JEFFERSON. 



prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety j discountenancing 
whatever may suggest even a suspicion tliat it can in any event be abandoned, 
and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate 
any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which 
now link together the various parts. For this you have every inducement of 
sympathy 
and interest. 
Citizens, by 
birth or 
choice, of 
a common 
country, that 




THE MOTHER OF ■WASHINGTON BE- 
CEIVING MAEQUIS LAFAYETTE. 

Previous to his departure for Europe, in the fall of 1784, the T.larquls de La- 
iayette repaired to Fredericksburg to pay his parting respects to Washington's 
mother and to ask hflr blessing. 

Conducted by one of her grandsons he approached the house, when, 
the young gentleman observing, "There, sir, is my grandmother," the Marquis .• r^j. j. 

beheld, working in her garden, clad in domestic-made clothes and her gray COUntrj IiaS a Tlgnt tO COU- 
head covered by b plain straw hat, the mother of "his hero, his friend, and a „„,,i„_i.„ „„nr iffpotinnc; Tbp 
countrj-'s preserver." The lady saluted him kindly, observing, "Ah, Marquis, you CenilclLeyULU ctllci^Liuiio. xiiu 
see an old woman; but come, I can make you welcome to my poor dwelling j^jjj^jg of AMERICAN, whlch. 
without the paradfc «f changing my dress." 

belongs to you in your nar 
tional capo.dty, must also exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any 
appellatio?! derived from local discriminations. With slight shades of differ- 
ence, you have the same religion, manners, habits, and political principles. 
You have in a common cause fought and triumphed together; the independence 



W 



PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1796. 167 

and liberty you possess are the work of joint counsels and joints efforts; of 
common dangers, sufierings, and successes." 

Washington next pointed out the mutual advantages derived from one 
another in the different sections of the Union, and impressively warned his 
countrymen against the danger of sectional parties and the baneful effects of 
party spirit. He commended the Constitution, which could be amended, when- 
ever the necessity arose, as beneficent in its provisions and obligatory upon all. 
Other wholesome counsel, which he added, made the Farewell Address a price- 
less heritage to the generations that came after him. 

The immediate effect of the jjaper was excellent. The various State Legis- 
latures voted thanks to Washington, and were warm in their praises of his 
wise and patriotic services as President. The regret was universal that the 
country was so soon to lose his valuable counsel and guidance. 

AVEST POINT MILITARY ACADEMY ESTABLISHED. 

During the Revolution Washington recommended the excellent location of 
West Point as the proper one for a military school of instruction. An act 
establishing the United States Military Academy at that place was passed March 
16, 1802. It provided that fifty students or cadets should be given instruction 
under the senior engineer or officer, assisted by the corps of engineers of the 
army. As the institution grew, professorships of mathematics, engineering, 
philosophy, etc., were added, and the academy was made a military body subject 
to the rules and articles of war. A superintendent was designated in 1815, and 
the present system of appointing cadets was instituted in 1843. The rigid 
course, steadily elevated, probably prevents fully one-half of those entering from 
graduating, and a comparison of the West Point Military Academy with simi- 
lar institutions establishes the fact that it is the finest of the kind in the world. 

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1796. 

The presidential election of 1796 was a close one, the result being : John 
Adams, Federalist, 71 ; Thomas Jefferson, Republican, 68 ; Thomas Pinckney, 
of South Carolina, Federalist, 59 ; Aaron Burr, of New York, Republican, 30 ; 
Samuel Adams, of Massachusetts, Republican, 15 ; Oliver Ellsworth, of Con- 
necticut, Independent, 11 ; George Clinton, of New York, Republican, 7 ; John 
Jay, of New York, Federalist, 5 ; James Iredell, of North Carolina, Federalist, 
3 ; George Washington, of Virginia, John Henry, of Maryland, and S. John- 
son, of North Carolina, all Federalists, 2 votes each ; Charles Cotesworth Pinck- 
ney, of South Carolina, Federalist, 1 vote. Since it required 70 votes to elect, 
it will be seen that John Adams was barely successful, with Jefferson close to 
him. 



?68 



WASHINGTON, ADAMS, AND JEFFERSON. 



John Adams, the second President, was born at Braintree, Massachusetts, 
October 19, 1735. He graduated at Harvard, at the age of twenty, and was 
admitted to the bar three years hiter. He was one of the most active and influ- 
ential members of the First and Second Continental Congresses. It was he wlio 
by his eloquent logic persuaded Congress to adopt the Declaration of Independ- 
ence. Jeiferson, his strenuous political opponent, declared that Adams was the 
pillar of its support and its ablest advocate and defender. It was Adams who 
suggested the apjDointment of General Washington as commander-in-chief of 
the Continental army. During the progress of the war, he criticised the man- 
agement of Washington, but, long 
before the de;ith of the Father of 
his Country, candidly acknowl- 
edged the injustice of such criti- 
cism. 

The services of Adams were not 
confined to his early efforts in Con- 
gress nor to his term as President. 
He did important work as connnis- 
sioner to Fi-ance and Holland, and 
as minister jjlenipotentiary to nego- 
tiate a treaty of peace with Gi'eat 
Britain. He obtained laroe loans 
and induced leading European powers 
to make excellent treaties with his 
country. Adams and Fianklin 
framed the preliminary treaty of 
Versailles, and, as the first Ameiican 
minister to England, he served until 
1788. He received the thanks of 
Congress for the " jiatriotism, perse- 




JOHN ADAMS. 

-1826) One term, 1797-lSOl. 



verance, integrity, and diligence ' 



displayed while representing his country abroad. When John Adams assumed 
the duties of the presidency, he found the country comparative] 3' prosperous 
and well governed. 

The South was the most prosperous. Until 1793, its principal productions 
were rice, indigo, tar, and tobacco. The soil and climate were highly favorable 
to the growth of cotton, but its culture was unprofitable, for its seeds were so 
closely interwoven in its texture that only by hard work could a slave clean five 
pounds a day. In the year named, Eli Whitney, a New England school- 
teacher, living in Georgia, invented the cotton gin, with which a man can clean 



-I 



TROUBLES WITH FRANCE 



168 



a thousand pounds of cotton a day. This rendered its cultivation highly profit- 
able, gave an importance to the institution of slavery, and, in its far-reaching 
effects, was the greatest invention ever made in this country. 

TROUBLES WITH FRANCE. 

The matter which chiefly occupied public attention during the adminis- 
tration of the elder Adams was our difficulties with France. That country had 
hardly emerged from the awful Reign of Terror in which a million of people 
were massacred, and it was under the control of a set of bloody minded mis- 
creants, who 
warred against 
mankind and 
believed they 
could compel 
the United 
States to pay a 
large sum of 
money for the 
25rivilege of 
being letalone. 
They turned 
our represen- 
tatives out of 
the country, 
enacted laws 
aimed to de- 
stroy our com- 
merce, and in- 
structed their 
naval officers 
to capture and sell American vessels and cargoes. 

President Adams, who abhorred war, sent special ministers to protest against 
the course of France. The impudent reply was there would be no stojipage 
until the men who controlled the French government were paid large sums of 
money. This exasperating notice brought the answer from Charles Cotesworth 
Pinckney which has become historical : " Millions for defense, but not one cent 
for tribute." 

Although war was not declared, it prevailed on the ocean during the latter 
half of 1798. Congress convened, abolished the treaties with France, 
strengthened the navy, and ordered it to attack French vessels wherever found. 




rr- 



THE COTTON GIN, INVENTED IN 1793. 

A machine which does the work of more than 1,000 men 



170 WASHINGTON, ADAMS, AND JEFFERSON. 

Several engagements took place, in all of which the French men-of-war were 
w'iipped " to a standstill." The most important of the naval battles was between 
tL',' Constitution, under Commodore Truxtou, and the French frigate L'lnsur- 
gente, in which the latter was captured. A messenger was sent to Mouat Vernon, 
carrying the appointment of Washington as commander-in-chief of the American 
army. He found the great man in the harvest field ; but when Washington donned 
his spectacles and read the paper, he replied that he was then as always ready 
to serve his country in whatever capacity he could. He accepted with the 
understanding that he was not to be called into the field until actual hostilities 
took place on the land, and that Alexander Hamilton should until then be the 
commander-in-chief. 

Doubtless a destructive war would have resulted, but for the fact that 
Napoleon BonajDarte, as a stepping-stone to his marvelous career, overturned the 
French government and installed himself as emperor. He saw the folly of a 
war with the United States, when he was certain soon to be embroiled with more 
powerful neighbors near home. He offered fair terms of peace to our country 
in 1799, and they were accepted. 

THE ALIEN AND SEDITION LAWS. 

One of the gravest mistakes made by the Federalists in Congress was tlje 
passage of the Alien and Sedition Laws. Irritated by the mischief-making of 
foreigners, a law was enacted which permitted the President to arrest any alien 
in the country whose presence he considered dangerous. The acts under which 
this was to be done were known as the Alien Laws. The most deteeted measure, 
however, was that which authorized the arrest of any person who should speak 
evil of the government, and was known as the Sedition Law. There were arrests 
and punishments under its provisions, and the majority of the peoi^le were bitterly 
hostile to it. It was unquestionably a direct invasion of the liberty of speech. 
The claim that no editor, public speaker, or private citizen should be allowed to 
condemn an action of the government which he disproved was unbearable, but 
it was in direct line with the Federal policy of a powerful central government, 
and as directly opposed to Republican principles. The feeling became so intense 
that at the next presidential election the Federal party was defeated and never 
afterward gained control of the government. 

REMOVAL OF THE NATIONAL CAPITAL TO WASHINGTON, 

The census of 1800 showed that the population of the country had 
increased to 5,308,483. In that year, the national capital was removed from 
Philadelphia to the straggling, partly built village of Washington, standing in 
the woods, and without any of the structures that have made it one of the most 
attractive cities in the world. 



4 



THOMAS JEFFEBSON. 



171 



The presidential election of 1800 was an exciting one. Thomas Jefferson 
and Aaron Burr, both Republicans, received 73 electoral votes, while John 
Adams, Federalist had Qd ; Charles C. Pinckney, Federalist, 64 ; John Jay, 
Federalist 1. The vote between the leaders being a tie, the election was thrown 
into the House of Eepresentatives, where, after thirty-eight ballots, Jefferson 
was elected, with Burr, the next highest candidate, Vice-President. The pre- 
ceding election, as will be remembered, gave a President and Vice-President of 
' different jwlitical parties, always an undesirable thing, and this fact, added to 
the difhculties of the election just over, led to the adoption in 1804 of the 
Twelfth Amendment to the Consti- 
tution, which requires the electors 
to vote separately for the President 
and Vice-President. 

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

Thomas Jefferson, third Presi- 
dent of the United States, was born 
at Shadwell, Albemarle County, 
Virginia, April 2, 1743. His father, 
a wealthy planter, died when his son 
was fourteen years old, and he en- 
tered William and INIary College, 
where he was the most assiduous 
student in the institution. Jefferson 
was as fond as Washington of ath- 
letic sports, and, though he was of 
less massive build, he attained the 
same stature, six feet two inches. 
In college, he was an awkward, 
freckle-faced, sandy haired youth, 
who, but for his superior mental 
attainments, would have commanded little respect. Except for his fondness for 
hunting and horseback riding, he never could have acquired the physique which 
allowed him to spend ten, twelve, and sixteen hours of every twenty- four i i 
hard study. 

Jefferson was undoubtedly the most learned of all our Presidents. He was 
not only a fine mathematician, but a master of Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, 
and Italian. He was an exquisite performer on the violin, and it was said of 
Lim, by one of the most noted European musicians, that he never heard an 
amateur play the king of instruments as well as the slim Virginian. 




THOMAS JEFFEKSON. 

(1743-1826.) Two terms, 1801-1809. 



172 WASHINGTON, ADA3f8, AND JEFFERSON. 

Jefferson married a wealthy lady and named his attractive home Monti- 
cello. His great ability caused his election to the Virginia Legislature while a 
young man, and he was soon afterward sent to Congress. Lacking the gifts of 
oratory, he had no suj^erior as a writer of fine, classical, forceful English. 
Among the many excellent laws he secured for Virginia was the separation of 
Church and State. He was the author of a parliamentary manual for the gov- 
ernment of the United States Senate, which is still an authority, and of our 
present system of decimal currency ; but the reader does not need to be re- 
minded that his fame will go down to posterity chiefly as the writer of the 
Declaration of Independence ; but Jefferson felt almost equally proud of the 
fact that he was founder of the University of Virginia, which, abandoning the 
old system, introduced the " free system of independent schools." He also pro- 
posed for his State a comprehensive system of free public schools. 

Although wealthy, he went almost to the extreme of simplicity. His dress 
•was as plain as that of the Quakers ; he wore leathern shoestrings instead of the 
fashionable silver buckles ; and strove to keep his birthday a secret, because some 
of his friends wished to celebrate it. He was oj^posed to all pomp, ceremony, 
and titles. He is universally regarded as the founder of the Democracy of the 
present day, and was undeniably one of the greatest Presidents we have had. 

WELCOME LEGISLATION. 

The administration of Jefferson proved among the most important in the 
history of our country. Congress promptly abolished the tax on distilled 
spirits and a number of other manufactures, a step which enabled the President 
to dismiss a large number of revenue collectors, whose unwelcome duties had en- 
tailed considerable expense upon the country. The obnoxious Sedition Law 
was repealed, and the Alien Law so modified that it was shorn of its disagree- 
able features. 

ADMISSION OF OHIO. 

In the year 1800, a line was run through the Northwest Territory from the 
mouth of the Great Miami to Fort Recovery and thence to Canada. Three 
years afterward, the territory thus defined was admitted to the Union as the 
State of Ohio. The Indiana Territory included the jwrtion west of the line 
named, with Vincennes as the capital. The Mississippi Territory was organized 
BO as to extend from the western boundaries of Georgia to the Mississippi. 

The punishment administered to France in 1798 naturally gave that coun- 
try a respect for the United States, and in 1802 our relations with her became 
quite friendly. Bonaparte, having established a truce with the nations around 
him, found time to give some attention to the American republic. He seemed to 
believe he could establish a French colonial empire, not only in the West Indies,, 



SLAVE TRADE ABOLISHED. 173 

but in the immense province of Louisiana. Had Bonaparte succeeded, he would 
have acquired control of the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico. Nothing 
would have pleased England more than to see so serious a check placed upon our 
growth, and nothing would have displeased our countrymen more than to be 
shut off" from the Father of Waters and the right to emigrate westward. They 
were ready to go to war before submitting to such deprivation. 

PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 

No one was more keenly alive to the situation than Jeflferson. He carefully 
instructed our envoy at Paris to make the strongest possible representations to 
the French ruler of the grave mistake of the course he had in mind, which 
must inevitably result in an alliance with Great Britain in sweeping France 
from the seas and driving her from the West Indies. Bonaparte was too wise 
not to perceive that this was no empty threat, and that his visionary French 
empire in the West would prove an element of weakness rather than strength. 
Nothing was plainer than the truth that the stronger the United States became, 
the more dangerous would it be for his traditional enemy, England. He, there- 
fore, proposed to sell Louisiana to the United States. 

This was the very thing for which Jefferson had been skillfully working 
from the first. The bargain was speedily completed. On April 30, 1803, 
Louisiana came into our possession for the sum of $11,250,000, we agreeing at 
the same time to pay certain debts due from France to American citizens, 
amounting to |3,750,00O, so that tiie total cost of Louisiana was $15,000,000. 

It must not be forgotten that the Territory of Louisiana, as purchased by 
us, was vastly more extensive than is the present State of that name. It in- 
cluded the area from which have been carved the States of Louisiana, Arkansas, 
Missouri, Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa, the Dakotas, Montana, part of Kansas, 
Wyoming and Colorado, and the Territory of Oklahoma, the whole area 
being 1,171,931 square miles, as against 827,844, which was all the territory oc- 
cupied previous to 1803. Peaceable possession was taken on the 20th of Decem- 
ber following. The governorship of the Territory was offered to Lafayette, and 
declined by him, but he received a grant of 12,000 acres within its limits. 

SLAVE TRADE ABOLISHED. 

At the time of the adoption of the Constitution, it was agreed that the slave 
trade should be permitted for twenty years. It was abolished, therefore, in 1808, 
and the penalty for engaging in it was made punishable with death. At the 
time of the purchase of Louisiana, it was believed that it included Texas, but 
the United States gave up this claim in 1819 to Spain in return for the cession 
of Florida. 



174 WASHINGTON, ADAMS, AND JEFFERSON. 

It seems incredible, but it was true, that for twenty years we had been pay< 
ing a large tribute to Algiers on condition that she would not molest our com- 
merce. Other nations did the same, because it was more convenient than 
keeping a navy in those far-off waters. A treaty with Morocco had been signed, 
in 1787, under which we also paid her tribute. The people of the Barbary 
States naturally waxed insolent, and when we were slow in sending our tribute 
they imposed a heavy penalty, which we meekly paid. 

WAR WITH TRIPOLI. 

One of the most disgusted men was Captain William Bainbridge, when 
obliged to carry the tribute in 1800 to the Dey of Algiers, who informed him 
that the Americans were his slaves, and must do as he ordered. The indignant 
officer expressed the hope that the next tribute he delivered would be from the 
mouths of his cannon. The following year the ruler of Tripoli became ruffled 
because we did not send him as much tribute as he thought he was entitled to, 
and actually declared war against us. 

The flurry of 1798 with France had caused a considerable increase in our 
navy, which was furnished with plenty of daring officers, who afterward made 
names for themselves. They eagerly welcomed a war of that nature which of 
necessity was a naval one. The operations were confined to the Mediterranean, 
on whose shore are the Barbary States. 

The first real fight took place in August, 1801, between the Enterprise, a 
vessel of twelve guns, and aTripolitan vessel of fourteen guns. It occurred off 
Malta, and lasted for two hours, when the Tripolitan hauled down his flag. 
Thereupon the Americans left their guns and were cheering, when the enemy 
treacherously fired a broadside into the Enterprise. Nothing loth. Lieutenant 
Sterrett renewed the battle with such vigor that in a few minutes the flag was 
lowered a second time, only to renew the fighting when the enemy saw an ad- 
vantage. 

Thoroughly exasperated, Lieutenant Sterrett now determined to complete 
the business. The vessel was raked fore and aft, the mizzen-mast torn away, 
the hull knocked to splinters, and fifty men killed and wounded. Then the 
American officer caught sight of the captain leaping up and down on the deck, 
shrieking and flinging his arms about, as evidence that he was ready to surrender 
in earnest. He threw his own flag overboard, but Lieutenant Sterrett demanded 
that his arms and ammunition should follow, the remainder of the masts cut 
away, and the ship dismantled. That being done, Sterrett allowed him to rig a 
jury mast and told him to carry his compliments to the Dey. 

The war against the Tripolitans was very similar to that against the Span- 
iards in 1898. The Enterprise had not lost a man, although the Americans 



i 



THE BOMB KETCH. 17b 

inflicted severe loss on the enemy. lu July, 1802, tlie Constellation, in a fight 
with nine Tripolitan gunboats, drove five ashore, the rest escaping by fleeing into 
the harbor. More than once a Tripolitan vessel was destroyed, with all on 
board, without the loss of a man on our side. 

But the war was not to be brought to a close without an American disaster. 
In 1803 the fine frigate Philadelphia, while chasing a blockade-runner, ran 
U2)0n a reef in the harbor of Tripoli, and, being helpless, a fleet of the enemy's 
gunboats swarmed around her and compelled Captain Bainbridge and his crew to 
surrender. The frigate was floated off" at high tide and the enemy refitted her. 

A GALLANT EXPLOIT. 

One night in February, 1804, the Intrepid, a small vessel under the command 
of Lieutenant Stephen Decatur, one of the bravest of American naval officers, 
approached the Philadelphia, as she lay at anchor, and, being hailed, replied, 
through a native whom he had impressed into service, that he was a merchant- 
man who had lost his anchors. The Tripolitans allowed the vessel to come 
alongside without any suspicion on their part. Suddenly a score of Americans 
sprang up and leaped through the portholes of the frigate. It took them but 
a few minutes to clear the deck, when the vessel was fired in several places and 
the men safely withdrew. The Philadelphia burned to the water's edge. 

Early in August, Commodore Preble bombarded the town of Tripoli from 
his mortar boats. During a fight with the gunboats James Decatur, a brother 
of Stephen, received the surrender of one he was fighting, and stepped on the 
deck to take possession. As he did so, the captain shot him dead. Stephen had 
just destroyed a gunboat when he learned of this treacherous occurrence and 
dashed after the craft, which he boarded. Eecognizing the captain from his 
immense size, he attacked him, and, in a desperate personal encounter, in which 
he narrowly escaped death himself, killed the Moor. 

THE BOMB KETCH. 

The Americans fixed up the Intrepid as a bomb ketch, storing a hundred 
barrels of powder and missiles and a hundred and fifty shells on deck. Under 
command of Captain Richard Somers, and accompanied by twelve men, the 
vessel ran slowly into the harbor one dark night. The intention was to fire 
a slow-match and then for the officer and men to withdraw in boats. Captain 
Somers was discovered by the enemy, and in some unknown way the ketch was 
blown up with all on board, and without doing any material harm to the ship- 
ping and fortifications in the harbor. 

Commodore Preble was superseded in November by Commodore Barron, 
who arrived with the President and Constellation. This gave the Americans 



176 WASHINGTON, ADAMS, AND JEFFERSON. 

ten vessels, carrjing 264 guns. Hostilities were pressed with so much vigor 
that the Dey of Tripoli became anxious to make peace before the teriible fleet 
from the West destroyed him and his people. Accordingly, a treaty was signed 
on the 3d of June by which the Tripolitans were given |60,000 for the prison- 
ers in their hands, and the payment of tribute to them was ended. 

EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARK. 

In those comparatively modern days the vast region west of the Mis- 
sissippi was almost unknown. President Jefferson recommended a congressional 
appropriation for the exploration of the country. The appropriation being 
made, a party of thirty men left the Mississippi, May 14, 1804, under command 
of Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. Both had had a good deal 
of experience in the Indian country, and they ascended the Missouri in a flo- 
tilla for 2,600 miles. To the three streams which form the Missouri they gave 
the names of Jefferson, Gallatin, and Madison. A detachment was then left in 
charge of the boats, and the remainder, riding the horses they had captured 
and tamed, made their way across the mountains. They discovered the two 
streams which bear their names, and traced the Columbia to its outlet in the 
Pacific Ocean. 

The expedition was absent for two years, and its report on returning added 
much to our geograjihical knowledge of the section. They were the first party 
of white men to cross the continent north of Mexico. Caj^tain Lewis was 
appointed governor of Missouri Territory in 1806, and was acting as such 
when he committed suicide in 1809. Captain Clark was also governor of Mis- 
souri Territory, and afterward superintendent of Indian affairs. He died in 
St. Louis in 1838. 

THE BURR AND HAMILTON DUEL. 

No one read the wicked character of Aaron Burr more unerringly than- 
Alexander Hamilton. He saw that he was ready to ruin his country for the 
sake of gratifying an insatiate ambition. Hamilton was always outs2:)oken in 
expressing his opinions, and the hostility between the two became so bitter 
that Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel. Although tlie latter had had a son 
killed through the barbarous code within the preceding year, he was foolish 
enough to accept the challenge, and the duel was fought at Weehawken, New 
Jersey, July 12, 1804. Hamilton fired in the air, but Burr aimed straight for 
his antagonist and inflicted a wound from which he died the next day. 

Although Burr presided in the Senate after the duel, the whole country 
was shocked by the occurrence, and his friends fell away from him. In 1804, 
when Jefferson was re-elected to the presidency, George Clinton took the 
place of Burr as Vice-President. Burr then engaged in a plot to form a 



THE BURR AND HAMILTON DUEL. 



17? 



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FROM NEVV YORK TO BOSTON 








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new empire in the southwest, the precise 
nature of which is uncertain. He found 
a few to join with him, but it came to 
naught, and in 1807 he was tried at 
-Richmond, Virginia, on the charge of 
treason, but acquitted. He spent some 
years in wandering over Europe, and then 
returned to resume the practice of law in 
New York. He died in obscurity and pov- 
erty on Staten Island in 1836. 

A notable event of Jefferson's ad- 
ministrations was the first voyage of a 
steamboat up the Hudson. This was the Cler- 
mont, the invention of Robert Fulton, who 
was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, 
in 1765. This boat was slightly over one hun- 
dred feet in length and about twenty feet 
broad, with side paddle-wheels and a sheet-iron 
boiler brought from England. There was general 
ridicule of the idea of moving boats by steam against 
a current, and the craft was called " Fulton's Folly." 
i, .,. "" The crowd which gathered on the wharf in New York, 

August 1, 1807, indulged in jests which were not 
DEVELOPMENT OP STEAM liushed Until the craft moved slowly but smoothly up 
^pu^^TON's^^scov^^Tf '^ stream. Heading against the current, she made the 
12 



i*»*SWIl^W?r^j 







178 



WASHINGTON, ADA3IS, AND JEFFERSON. 



voyage to Albany in thirty-two hours. She met with some mishaps, but 
after a time made regular trips between that city and New York, at the rate of 
five miles an hour. 

OCEAN STEAMERS. 

This incident marked an epoch in the history of the West, where the first 
steamboat was built in 1811. Within a few years, they were plying on all the 
important rivers, greatly assisting emigration and the development of the 
country. The first steamer to cross the Atlantic was the Savannah in 1819. 
The screw propeller was introduced by the great Swedish inventor, John Erics- 
son, in 1836. Really successful ocean navigation began in 1838, when the 

Sirius and Gh'eat Western made the 
voyage from England to the United 
States. 

OPPRESSIVE COURSE OF ENGLAND. 

The devastating war raging be- 
tween England and France was de- 
structive to American commerce and 
interests. The star of the wonder- 
ful Napoleon Bonaparte was rapidly 
in the ascendant, and his marvelous 
military genius seemed to threaten the 
" equilibrium of the world." England 
had no love for the United States and 
played havoc with our shipping. 
Her privateers infested our coasts, like 
swarms of locusts. Because of her 
immense naval superiority, she pes- 
tered us almost beyond bearing. She 
stopped our vessels off-shore, followed 
them into rivers and harbors, overhauled the crews, and in many cases took 
sailors away under the plea that they were English deserters. Her claim was 
that "once a British subject, always a British subject;" no sworn allegiance 
to any other government could release the claim of England upon him. 

Our vessels were prohibited from carrying imports from the West Indies 
to France, but evaded the law by bringing imports to this country and then 
reshipping them to France. England peremptorily ordered the practice to stop 
and declared that all vessels thus engaged should be lawful prizes to her ships. 
This action caused general indignation in this country and thousands of citizens 
clamored for war. 




KOBEBT FULTOj\. 



THE AFFAIR OF THE LEOPARD AND CHESAPEAKE. 179 

Jefferson never lost his self-poise. While a thorough patriot, he knew the 
meaning of war. He sent a message to Congress on the subject in January, 
1806, and the question was one of earnest and prolonged discussion, ending 
in the adoption of a resolution to prohibit certain articles of British manufac- 
ture. 

But matters rapidly grew worse. In May following England declared the 
coast of Europe, from the Elbe in Germany to Brest in France, in a state of 
blockade. Bonaparte retaliated with the famous Berlin Decree, which block- 
aded the British Islands. In the spring of 1807 the British shijj Leander fired 
into a coasting vessel and killed one of the men. The President issued a proc- 
lamation forbidding the Leander and the two ships in her company from 
entering any of the waters of the United States; calling upon all officers to 
apprehend the captain of the Leander on a charge of murder; prohibiting all 
communication between the shore and the ships, and warning all citizens from 
giving them aid under penalty of the law. Envoys were sent to England to 
adjust the trouble, but their efforts came to naught. 

THE AFFAIR OF THE LEOPARD AND CHESAPEAKE. 

Matters were in this tense state when the most glaring outrage of all was 
perpetrated. The British ship-of-war Leopard, of fifty guns, was cruising off 
the capes of Virginia, hunting for the American frigate Chesapeake, which she 
claimed had a number of English deserters on board. The Chesapeake was 
hailed, and the English captain asked permission to send dispatches on board. 
Such courtesies were common, and Captain James Barron, the American com- 
mander, willingly complied with the request. When the boat arrived, a letter 
was presented to Captain Barron, containing the orders of the British admiral 
to search the Chesapeake for a number of deserters, who were mentioned by 
name. Captain Barron sent word that he had no knowledge of any deserters, 
and refused to submit. Thereupon the Leopard fired several broadsides into the 
Chesapeake, which, being entirely unprepared for battle, was obliged to strike 
her flag, three men having been killed and eighteen wounded. Four men were 
then selected from the crew of the Chesapeake, three of whom were negroes, all 
declared to be deserters, and taken on board the Leopard. 

The country was thrown into a tumult of excitement, and the President, 
by proclamation, closed all American harbors and waters against the British 
navy, prohibited any intercourse with such vessels, and sent a special minister 
to England to demand satisfaction. Congress was called together, and a hundred 
thousand men in Jhe different States were ordered to hold themselves in readi- 
ness for service. The action of the captain of the Leander was disavowed, 
reparation offered, and the offending admiral was recalled, but the reparation 



180 WASHINGTON, ADAMS, AND JEFFERSON. 

promised was never made, aud Great Britain refused to give up tlie right of 
eearcli. 

THE EMBARGO ACT. 

Although the action of England was anything but satisfactory, it averted 
war for the time. In December, Congress passed the Embargo Act, which for- 
bade all American vessels to leave the coast of the United States. The belief 
was that by thus suspending commerce with England and France, the two countries 
would be forced to respect our neutrality. The real sufferers, however, were 
ourselves ; New England and New York, whose shipping business was ruined, 
denounced the act in unmeasured terms. Thus the administration of Jefferson, 
which had brought so much material prosperity to the country and was so pro- 
lific in beneficent events, closed amid clouds and threatened disaster. 

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1808. 

In the presidential election of 1808, the electoral vote was as follows: 
James Madison, of Virginia, Republican, 122 ; Charles C. Pinckney, of South 
Carolina, Federalist, 47 ; George Clinton, of New York, Ile2)ublican, 6. For 
Vice-President, George Clinton, Republican, 113 ; Rufus King, of New York, 
Federalist, 47; John Langdon, of New Hampshire, 9; James Madison, 3; 
James Monroe, 3. Vacancy, 1. Thus Madison and Clinton became respectively 
President and Vice-President. 



CHAPTEE IX. 
ADMINISTRATIONS OK NIADISON, 1809— 1817 

THE WAR OF 1812. 

James Madison — The Embargo and the Non-Intercourse Acts — Kevival of the Latter Against England— 
The Little Belt and the P/es((/e«<— Population of the United States in 1810— Battle of Tippecanoe— 
Declaration of War Against England— Comparative Strength of the Two Nations on the Ocean- 
Unpopularity of the War in New England— Preparations Made by the Government— Cowardly Sur- 
render of Detroit— Presidential Election of 1812— Admission of Louisiana and Indiana — New 
National Bank Chartered— Second Attempt to Invade Canada— Battle of Queenstown Heights — 
Inefficiency of the American Forces in 1812— Brilliant Work of the Navy — The Constitution and the 
Guerrih-e—'Y\ie Wasp and the J^ro//c— The United States and the Macedonian— Tlifi Constitution and 
the Java — Reorganization and Strengthening of the Army — Operations in the West — Gallant Defense 
of Fort Stephenson— American Invasion of Ohio and Victory of the Thames— Indian Massacre at 
Fort Mimms— Capture of York (Toronto)— Defeat of the Enemy at Sackett's Harbor— Failure of the 
American Invasion of Canada — The Hornet and Peacock — Capture of the Chesapeake — "Don't Give 
Up the Ship" — Captain Decatur Blockaded at New London — Capture of the Argjts by the Enemy^ 
Cruise of the Essex — The Glorious Victory of Commodore Perry on Lake Erie — Success of the 
American Arms in Canada — Battle of the Chippewa — Of Lundy's Lane — Decisive Defeat of the 
Enemy's Attack on Plattsburg — Punishment of the Creek Indians for the Massacre at Fort Mimms 
— Vigorous Action by the National Government — Burning of Washington by the British — The 
Hartford Convention. 

JAMES MADISON. 

James Madison, the fourth President of the United States, was born at Port 
Conway, Virginia, March 16, 1751, and died June 28, 1836. He received 
the best educational facilities and graduated from Princeton College at the 
age of twenty. He devoted himself so closely to study that he permanently 
injured his health. In 1776, he was elected a member of the Virginia Legis- 
lature, and was offered the mission to France, after the return of Jefferson, but 
declined it. Again he had the chance of becoming Jefferson's successor, when 
the latter resigned as secretary of State, but refused through fear of causing 
differences in Washington's cabinet. He was a Federalist at first, but changed 
his views and became an earnest Republican. Jefferson made him his secretary 
of State, and he served throughout both administrations. He was a cultured 
gentleman, an ardent friend of Jefferson, and carried out his policy when he 
became President. 

THE NON-INTERCOURSE ACT. 

Just before the close of Jefferson's last term. Congress repealed the Embargo 
Act and passed the Non-Intercourse Act. which forbade all trade with England. 

(181) 



182 



ADMINISTRATIONS OF MADISON. 



This was in 1809, and the law was abrogated in the following year. Our rela- 
tions with England, however, continued to grow more irritating, until it became 
clear that war was at hand. Congress gave notice that if either Great Britain or 
France would repeal their offensive decrees, the Non-Intercourse Act would be 
revived against the other. Bonaparte immediately announced that he revoked 
bis decrees, but instead of doing so, he enforced them more rigidly than before, 
thus accomplishing what he sought, that of arraying the United States against 
Great Britain. The Non-Intercourse Law was revived against Great Britain, 
whose conduct became more exasperating than ever. Our whole coast was under 

— ,»« surveillance, and many of our mer- 

I _^__ 1 chant vessels were captured without 

any excuse whatever. 

In the dusk of early evening, 
May 16, 1811, the British sloop Lit- 
tle Belt, while occupied in holding 
up American vessels, hailed the frig- 
ate President off the coast of Vir- 
ginia. Deeming the re])ly of the 
American not sufficiently respectful, 
the Little Belt fired a shot at the 
President, which instantly let fly 
with a broadside, followed b}' several 
others, that killed eleven men and 
wounded twenty-one. The incident 
added to the angry excitement in 
both countries and brought war 
nearer. 

BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE. 

The population of the United 
States in 1810 was 7,239,881, some- 
what more than a third of Great 
Britain and Ireland. Our growth in the West was rapid. There was a con^ 
tinual stream of emigration thither, and the Indians, seeing how rapidly their 
hunting grounds were passing from them, combined to resist the invasion. This 
was done under the leadership of Tecumseh, the ablest Indian that ever lived. 
In this course he was incited by British agents, who, knowing that war was 
coming, were anxious to do the Americans all the harm they could. The out- 
rages of the red men became so numerous that General William Henry Harri- 
son, governor of the Northwest Territory, gathered a large force and marched 
against them. Near the present city of Lafayette, while encamped at a place 




JAMES MADISON. 

(nsi-1836.) Two terms, 1809-1817. 



(I 



ENGLAND'S OVERWHELMING NAVAL STRENGTH. 183 

called Tippecanoe, he was furiously assailed (Nov. 7, 1811) by the Indians. 
Tecumseh was absent at the time, and the battle was brought on, against his 
orders, by his brother, called " The Prophet." The loss was severe on both 
sides, but the Indians were decisively defeated. 

By this time the American people were clamoring more loudly than ever 
for war with England. The congressional candidates were obliged to declare 
whether they favored or opposed the war. Those who opposed it were beaten at 
the polls. Congress, which had been making preparations for some time for 
hostilities, declared war against England, June 18, 1812. It is a regrettable fact 
that we could not know that almost on the same day England suspended the 
Orders of Council, so far as they affected this country. Had the Atlantic cable 
been in existence at the time, there would have been no war. 

England's overwhelming naval strength. 

England had been fighting so continuously with her neighbors that her 
strength on the ocean was overwhelming when compared with ours. She had 
1,036 vessels, of which 254 were ships-of-the-line, not one of which carried less 
than seventy-four guns. This immense navy was manned by 144,000 men. 
The American navy numbered 12 vessels, besides a few gunboats of little value. 
Indeed, the relative strength of the warring nations was so disproportionate 
that the intention of the United States at first was not to attempt a conflict on 
the ocean. Captains Bainbridge and Stewart, however, persuaded the govern- 
ment to allow our little navy to try its hand. 

Despite the seeming hopelessness of such a struggle, it had some advantages 
for the Americans. In the first place, it was easier for them to find the enemy 
than for the latter to find them, because of the disproportion between the num- 
ber of their vessels. More important, however, than all was the fact that our 
navy contained no politicians. The men were brave sailors, and marvelously 
skillful in handling guns. With these conditions they were sure to win glory 
on the ocean. 

Still another fact must be mentioned, for it will explain many of the inci- 
dents recorded in the following pages. England had been triumphant so long 
on the ocean that she had become unduly confident and careless. She held the 
surrounding nations in light esteem, and had good warrant for doing so. 
Naturally this led her greatly to underestimate the insignificant American navy. 
When such a mistake is made the consequences are sure to be disastrous to the 
one committing the blunder. 

Truth compels the statement that in every war in which our country has 
been engaged since the Revolution, the disasters have been mainly due to the 
politicians. They have the " pull," as it is called, with the government, and 



184 ADMINISTRATIONS OF MADISON. 

secure the appointment of men as leaders who are totally lacking in military skill. 
When defeat has followed defeat, with exasperating regularity, the government 
gradually awakes to the fact that the most criminal thing it can do is to place a 
politician in charge of a body of brave men, or to appoint a callow youth to the 
same position, merely because his father was a good soldier and has become a 
politician. 

THE WAR UNPOPULAR IN SOME SECTIONS. 

Moreover, it must be remembered that our country was by no means a unit 
in favoring the second war with England. It was popular in most of the Middle 
States and the South, but bitterly opposed in New England. When the news 
reached Boston of the declaration of war, the shipping hung their flags at half- 
mast. Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Jersey, through their Legislatures, 
protested against it, but, as in the Revolution, the general enthusiasm swept 
away all opposition. 

An increase of the regular army was ordered to 25,000 men, in addition to 
the call for 50,000 volunteers, while the States were asked to summon 100,000 
militia, to be used in defense of the coast and harbors. The government 
authorized a loan of $11,000,000, and Henry Dearborn, of Massachusetts, was 
made the first major-general and commander-in-chief of the army, while the 
principal brigadiers were James Wilkinson, William Hull, Joseph Bloomfield^ 
and Wade Hampton, the last being father of the general of the same name 
who became famous as a Confederate leader in the War for the Union. 

A SHAMEFUL SURRENDER. 

The opening battle of the war was one of the most shameful affairs that 
ever befell the American arms. General William Hull, who had made a 
creditable record in the Revolution, was governor of Michigan Territory. He 
was ordered to cross the river from Detroit, which was his home, and invade 
Canada. He showed great timidity, and learning that a British force, under 
General Brock, was advancing against him, he recrossed the river and returned 
to Detroit, before which General Brock appeared, on the 12th of August, at the 
head of 700 British soldiers and 600 Indians. In demanding the surrender of 
the post, he frightened Hull, whose daughter and her children were with him 
by telling him he would be unable to restrain the ferocity of his Indians, if the 
Americans made a defense. 

The soldiers were brave and eager to fight, but, to their inexpressible dis- 
gust, the siege had been pressed but a short time when Hull ran up a white 
flag and surrendered, August 16th. With the submission of Detroit went the 
whole territory northwest of Ohio. 

The country was angered and humiliated by the act. Twenty-five men were 



BATTLE OF QUEEN8T0WN HEIGHTS. 185 

given in exchange for Hull, and he was placed on trial, charged with treason, 
cowardice, and conduct unbecoming an officer. He was convicted on the last 
two charges and sentenced to be shot. In recognition of his services in the 
Revolution, however, the President pardoned him, and he died, without ever 
having gained the respect of his countrymen, in 1825. 

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1812. 

Before proceeding with the history of the war, a few incidents not con- 
nected with it should be recorded. In the presidential election of 1812, the 
electoral vote was : for President, James Madison, Republican, 128 ; De Witt 
Clinton, of New York, Federalist, 89. For Vice-President, Elbridge Gerry, of 
Massachusetts, Republican, 131 ; Jared Ingersoll, of Pennsylvania, Federalist, 
86. Vacancy, 1. Thus Madison and Gerry were elected. 

Louisiana was admitted as a State in 1812, being a part of the immense 
territory of that name purchased from France in 1803. Indiana was admitted 
in 1816, and was the second of the five States carved out of the old Northwest 
Territory. It will be recalled that the United States Bank was chartered in 
1791 for twenty years. Its charter, therefore, expired in 1811. In 1816, 
Congress chartered a new bank, on the same plan and for the same length of 
time. The public money was to be deposited in it or its branches, except when 
the secretary of the treasury choose to order its deposit elsewhere. 

BATTLE OF QUEENSTOWN HEIGHTS. 

Returning to the history of the war, it has to be said that the second 
attempt to invade Canada was more disastrous if possible than the first, and 
more disgraceful to American arms. The troops on the Niagara frontier were 
mainly New York militia, with a few regulars and recruits from other States, all 
under the command of Stephen Van Rensselaer. Resolved to capture the 
Heights of Queenstown, he sent two columns across the river on the morning 
of October 13, 1812. They were led by Colonel Solomon Van Rensselaer, 
cousin of the general and a brave officer. The engagement was a brisk one, 
the colonel being wounded early in the fight, but his troops gallantly charged 
the Heights and captured the fortress. General Brock was reinforced and 
attacked the Americans, but was repulsed, Brock being killed. The fierceness 
of the battle is shown by that fact that the three commanders who succeeded 
Brock were either killed or severely wounded. 

Under the attack of superior forces, the Americans had managed to hold 
their ground and they now began to intrench. Meanwhile, the 1,200 New 
York militia on the other side of the river had become frightened by the 
sounds of battle, and when called upon to cross refused to do so, on the cowardly 



186 ADMINISTRATIONS OF MADISON. 

I 

plea that they had enlisted to defend only their State. Lieutenant-Colonel Winfield 
Scott had taken command of the brigade and was engaged in intrenching, when 
the enemy, again reinforced, drove his trooj^s, after two attacks, to the river, 
where they were hemmed in and compelled to surrender. The American loss 
in killed and wounded was fully a thousand. General Van Rensselaer was so 
disgusted with the conduct of his militia that he resigned his command, and 
was succeeded by General Alexander Smyth, of Virginia, whose conduct led to 
the general conviction that he was mentally about as near to being an idiot as 
it is possible for a man to be and still retain a little ground for being thought 
otherwise. 

The first thing General Smyth did was to issue a proclamation of so bom- 
bastic a character that his friends were humiliated. He made several starts 
toward Canada, but in each instance recalled his troops, and acted so inexplic- 
ably that the militia were on the point of revolting, when he was deprived of his 
command. This closed the military operations for the year 1812, and the story 
is enough to crimson the cheek of every American with shame. 

BRILLIANT WORK OF THE AMERICAN NAVY. 

On the ocean, however, the record was brilliant and as astonishing to |j' 
friends as to enemies. Hardly had the news of the declaration of war reached 
New York, when Commodore John Eodgers put to sea in the President, the 
same vessel that had taught the Little Belt her severe lesson. Some time later 
Rodgers sighted the frigate Belvidera and gave chase. He killed a number 
of the crew, but the vessel managed to escape. Continuing his cruise, he cap- 
tured a number of merchantmen and retook an American prize. The luckiest 
ship in the American navy was said to be the Constitution, afterward popu- 
larly known as "Old Ironsides." Under command of Captain Isaac Hull, 
nephew of the disgraced general of Detroit, she engaged the sloop-of-war Gaer- aL 
riere off" the coast of Massachusetts. The battle was a desperate one, but ' * 
extraordinary markmanship prevailed, and the enemy were compelled to strike 
their flag after a loss of 79 killed and wounded, while that of the Americans 
was 7 killed and 7 wounded. 

The victory caused deep chagrin in England and corresponding rejoicing 
in the United States. Congress gave Captain Hull a gold medal and distributed 
$50,000 among his crew. 

In October, the sloop-of-war Wasp, Captain Jacob Jones, met the British 
brig Frolic off" Cape Hatteras. Since the vessels were of precisely the same 
strength, the contest could not have been a more perfect test of the bravery and 
efl&ciency of the ships of England and our own country. As respects bravery, 
it was equal, for the men on both sides fought with a courage that could not have 



BRILLIANT WORK OF THE AMERICAN NAVY. 



187 



been surpassed. When tlie crew of the \\^. 
Wasp boarded the Frolic, they found no J ] ; 
one on deck excej^t the man at the wheel .?.* -" UffpTj'' 
and two wounded officers. The vessels were '■'' //i''f''i'i%/'fl, 
so damaged that on the same day the ^~°^ ^ 

Britisli ship Poicters captured both. 

During the same month (Octo- 
ber 25th), Commodore Stephen De- 
catur, in command of the frigate 
United States, encountered 
the British frisjate Macedo- 
nian off" the Island of Madeira, 
tured her after a battle of two 
which he lost twelve men, 
of the enemy was 
a hundred. The 
ian was so shattered 
with the greatest 
was she brought 




''V 






'iisk 





THE ABTS OF PEACE AND THE ART OF WAR. 



\mmk 

ym^ and cap- 
^ "^'» hours, in 
while that 
more than 
3Iacedon- 
that only 
difficulty 
into New London. 
The com- 
mand of the Con- 
stitution was now 
t u r n e d over to 
Bainbridge, who 
sighted the frigate 
Java off the coast 
of Brazil, December 29th. 
In the terrific battle that 
followed he lost 34 men, 
but killed 120 of the enemy, 
tore out every mast, and 
burst her hull with round 
shot. The Java was blown 
up, and the prisoners and 
wounded were taken to 
Boston, where Bainbridge 
received a right royal wel- 
come. 

This ends the history 
of the first half-year of the 



188 ADMINISTRATIONS OF MADISON. 

■war of 1812. While everything went wrong on land, the ocean showed only 
a succession of brilliant victories. England, chagrined and humiliated, declared 
that her flag had been disgraced " by a piece of striped bunting flying at the 
toast-heads of a few fir-built frigates, manned by a handful of outlaws." 

KEORGANIZATION OF THE ARMY. 

Congress took measures for strengthening and reorganizing the army. 
The pay and bounty of the soldiers were increased; the President was em- 
powered to raise twenty additional regiments of infantry, to borrow money, 
and to issue treasury liotes, and provisions were made for adding four shijjs-of- 
the-line, six frigates, and as many vessels of war on the Great Lakes as might be 
needed. The army was organized into three divisions : the Army of the North, 
under General Wade Hampton, to act in the countrj^ about Lake Champlain; 
the Army of the Centre, under the commander-in-chief. General Henry Deai'- 
born, to act on the Niagara frontier and Lake Ontario; and the Army of the 
East, under General Winchester, who soon after was superseded by General 
William Henry Harrison. 

IN THE WEST. 

The last-named officer did his utmost to drive the British out of Detroit. 
His troops were volunteers, brave but undisciplined, and displayed their most 
effective work in scattered fighting and against the Indians; but their success 
was not decisive. When the swam^^s and lakes of the Northwest were suffi- 
ciently frozen to bear their weight, Harrison re2:»eated his attempts to exj^el the 
British from Detroit. His advance, under General Winchester, was attacked 
on the River Raisin by the British, led by General Proctor. Winchester was 
as prompt as General Hull in surrendering. Proctor allowed his Indians to 
massacre the wounded prisoners, most of whom were Kentuckians. Thereafter, 
when the Kentucky troops rushed into battle they raised the war-cry, "Re- 
member the Raisin ! " 

The disaster to Winchester caused Harrison to fall back to Fort Meigs, 
which stood near the site of the 2:)resent town of Defiance. There, in the spring 
of 1813, he was besieged by Proctor. A force of Kentuckians relieved him, 
after severe loss, and Proctor retreated. Some months later he again advanced 
against Fort Meigs, but was rej^ulsed, and marched to Fort Stephenson, where 
Fremont now stands. 

The besiegers consisted of 3,000 British and Indians, while the garrison 
numbered only 160, under the command of Major George Croghan, only twenty 
years of age. When Proctor ordered the youth to surrender he threatened 
^lat, in case of resistance, every prisoner would be tomahawked. Major 
Croghan replied that when the surrender took place there would not be a single 



CAPTURE OF TORONTO (YORK). 189 

man left to tomahawk. Although Croglian had but a single cannon, he made 
so gallant a defense that his assailants were repulsed, and Proctor, fearing the 
apjjroach of Harrison, withdrew from the neighborhood. 

BATTLE OF THE THAMES. 

Perry's great victory on Lake Erie in September, 1813, as related further 
on, gave the Americans command of that body of water. Harrison's troops 
were placed on board of Perry's vessels and carried across from Ohio to Canada. 
They landed near Maiden and Proctor fell back to Sandwich, with the Ameri- 
cans following. He continued his retreat to the Thames, where, with the help 
of Tecumseh, he selected a good battle-ground and awaited the Americans, who 
attacked him on the 5th of October. Proctor fled early in the battle, but his 
regulars fought bravely. The 1,500 Indians, under the lead of Tecumseh, 
displayed unusual heroism, but, when the great Tecumseh fell, they fled in a 
panic. The American victory was overwhelming and complete. 

Tecumseh's irresistible eloquence had roused the Creeks to take the war- 
path in the South. The danger became so imminent that 500 of the inhabitants 
took refuge in a stockade known as Fort Mimms, Alabama, thirty-five miles 
above Mobile. The sentinels, believing there was no danger, were careless, and 
on August 21, 1813, nearly a thousand Creeks attacked the place, which was 
surprised and captured after feeble resistance. More than 200 were tomahawked, 
the negroes being spared to become slaves of the Indians. 

CAPTURE OF TORONTO (tORK). 

In April of this year. General Dearborn crossed Lake Ontario from 
Sackett's Harbor to Toronto (then known as York), which was the capital of 
Upper Canada and the chief depot for the supply of the western garrisons. 
Under a sharp fire. General Zebulon Pike drove the enemy from the works. 
The explosion of a magazine in the fort caused the death of General Pike in 
the moment of victory. 

The operations left Sackett's Harbor almost unprotected, and led to an 
attack by the British admiral. Sir James Yeo, and General Prevost. The com- 
mander of the garrison appealed to General Jacob Brown, a militia ofl[icer of 
the neighborhood, who hurriedly gathered a small force and added it to the 
defenders. In the attack which followed Brown showed great skill, and 
General Prevost, believing his retreat was about to be cut oflf, fled in a panic, 
leaving 300 dead and wounded. In the engagements in that section during the 
remainder of the year. General Brown was about the only ofiicer who displayed 
any military ability, his skill eventually placing him at the head of the United 
States army. 



i90 ADMINISTRATIONS OF MADISON. 

The fighting that followed was mainly iu favor of the British, who recap- 
tured York. Eight liuudred Americans were made prisoners at Beaver Dams, 
and, as the autumn approached, the enemy found themselves iu command of a 
powerful squadron. 

INCOMPETENT COMMANDERS. 

There was much dissatisfaction with General Dearborn, the head of the 
army. He was in ill-health, never led his troops in person, and missed a good 
opportunity of capturing Montreal. He was relieved in June and succeeded by 
General Wilkinson, who arrived at Sackett's Harbor in August. He began 
preparations for invading Canada, but was so laggard in his movements that the 
enemy had abundance of time in which to make ready. The St. Lawrence 
seemed to be fortified at every point, but General Brown, by brave fighting, 
opened the way for the flotilla. 

General Wilkinson reached St. Regis, November 11th, at which point 
General Wade Hamj^ton was to co-operate with him. But that officer, owin^ to 
a lack of ijrovisions, had fallen back to Plattsburg, hoping to keep open his 
communications with the St. Lawrence. This obliged General Wilkinson to 
retreat, and Wilkinson, Hampton, and other ofiicers quarreled like so many 
children. 

Disaster and disgrace seemed to follow the American land forces during the 
first two years of the war, but the fault lay wholly with the ofiicers, who were 
incompetent, and many times lacking in patriotism. The soldiers were brave 
but were comparatively powerless with such poor commanders. 

Once again the American navy performed brilliant work, though, unfor- 
tunately, the record was marred by a sad disaster. On February 24th, Captain 
James Lawrence, who had made several minor captures from the enemy, riddled 
the English brig-of-war Peacock, while in command of the Hornet, and, in a 
fierce engagement of fifteen minutes, compelled her to surrender and hoist a 
signal of distress. She went down so quickly that several of the HorneCs crew, 
who were giving aid, sank with her, besides thirteen of the enemy. Cajitain 
Lawrence treated his prisoners so kindly that, upon reaching New York, they 
gave him a letter of thanks. 

CAPTURE OF THE CHESAPEAKE BY THE SHANNON, 

Captain Lawrence's fine work caused him to be promoted to the command 
of the Chesapeake, then refitting at Boston. Captain Broke (afterward Sir 
Philip, B. v.), commander of the Shannon, cruising ofi" Boston, challenged 
Lawrence to come out and fight him. The American promptly accepted the chal- 
lenge. It was a piece of unwarrantable recklessness, for the Chesapeake was 
not yet ready for the sea, and his crew was undisciplined and in a surly mood, 



A 



CAPTAIN DECATUR CHECKED. 



191 



because some promised prize money had not been paid them. Moreover, it is 
said that most of the sailors were under the influence of liquor. 

The Chesapeake sailed gaily out of the harbor on the 1st of June, followed 
by a number of pleasure boats and barges crowded with sj^ectators, while the hills 
swarmed with peo23le, many with glasses, all anxious to witness the triumph of 
the gallant young captain. A woeful disappointment awaited them. 

The battle was a terrific one. In a short time the rigging of the Chesa- 
peake was so mangled that she became unmanageable, and could not oscapf a 
raking; fire which did frio;htful 
execution. Captain Lawrence was 
twice wounded, the last time mor- 
tally, and was carried below at the 
time the enemy were preparing to 
board. He ordered that the colors 
should not be struck. "Tell the 
men to fire faster," he cried ; " do7i't 
give up the ship ! " 

Boarders swarmed over the 
Chesapeake and a few minutes later 
she was captured, the loss of the 
Americans being 48 killed and 98 
wounded, that of the enemy being 
about half as great. Lawrence lived 
four days, most of the time delirious, 
during which he continually re- 
peated the appeal, "Don^t give up 
the ship ! " The impressiveness of 
the circumstances and the words 
themselves made them the motto of 
the American navy in many a sub- 
sequent engagement. 

Lawrence was one of the brav- 
est of men, and entered the navy when only seventeen years old. He helped 
Captain Decatur in burning the Philadelphia, in the harbor of Tripoli, dur- 
ing the war with that country. His body was taken to Halifax and buried 
with the honors of war, several of the oldest captains in the British navy 
acting as pall-bearers. 

CAPTAIN DECATUR CHECKED. 

An exasperating experience befell Captain Decatur. On the day of the 
capture of the Chesapeake, he was compelled to take refuge in the harbor of 




MES. JAMES MADISON 
(DOLLY PAYNE). 
During the burning of Washington in 1812 by the British, Dolly 
Madison's heroism saved the Declaration of Independence from de- 
struction. She brol;e the glass case containing it and fled. 



192 ADMINISTRATIONS OF MADISON. 

New Loudon, to escape a powerful squadron. He was in command of the 
United States, the Macedonian, and the Hornet. Chafing with impatience, he 
made repeated attempts to get to sea, but he declared that in every instance the 
blockading squadron were notified by means of blue lights displayed by Tories 
on shore. He was thus held helpless until the close of hostilities. This 
betrayal by his own countrymen caused much resentment throughout the coun- 
try, and the enemies of the Federal party gave it the name of " Blue Lights," 
and Connecticut was often taunted for her disloyal course in the war, though the 
offenders were probably few in number. 

By this time, England had acquired so wholesome a respect for the Ameri- 
can navy that orders were issued that two or three vessels should always cruise 
iu company, and under no circumstances should a single vessel engage an 
American, where there was the least preponderance against the British. The 
Americans were the only nation against whom such an order was ever issued. 

Captain William Henry Allen, in command of the brig Argus, boldly 
entered the English Channel and destroyed much shipping of the enemy. 
Many vessels were sent in search of him, and on the 14th of August he was cap- 
tured by the Pelican. Soon afterward the brig Enterprise captured the British 
Boxer off the coast of Maine. The fight was a desperate one, both commanders 
being killed. They were buried side by side in Portland. 

THE CKUISE OF THE ESSEX. 

Li the spring of 1813, Captain David Porter (father of Admiral David 
Dixon Porter), in command of the Essex, doubled Cape Horn and entered the 
Pacific, where until then no American frigate had ever been seen. He pro- 
tected American vessels and nearly broke up the British whaling trade in that 
ocean. He made so many captures that he soon had almost a fleet under his 
command, and was able to pay his men with the money taken from the enemy. 
Every nation in that region was a friend of England, and he seized the Mar- 
quesas Islands, where he refitted his fleet and resumed his cruise. Early in 
1814, he entered the neutral harbor of Valparaiso, Avhere he was blockaded by 
two British vessels that had long been searching for him. Regardless of inter- 
national law, they attacked the Essex, which was in a crippled condition and 
unable to close with them, and finally comjjelled her surrender. 

OPERATIONS ON THE LAKES. 

Thus far our record of the exploits of the American navy has been con- 
fined to the ocean, but the most important doings of all occurred on the lakes. 
At the beginning, our force upon these inland waters was weak. On Lake 
Ontario, there was but one small vessel, while the British had several. Both 



PERRY'S GREAT VICTORY. 193 

sides began building war-vessels. The American fleet was commanded by Com- 
modore Cliauncey and the British by Sir James Yeo. They alternated in gain- 
ing command of the lake. Meanwhile, the ship-builders were so busy that from 
about a dozen vessels on either side they increased the number to more than a 
hundred each by the close of the war. 

perry's great victory. 

One of the grandest of all triumphs was gained by the American navy in 
the early autumn of 1813. Captain Oliver Hazard Perry was sent to Lake 
Erie to build a navy. Perry at that time was not thirty years old and had 
never seen a naval battle. By August, he had a squadron of two largs and 
seven small vessels, carrying 54 guns and 416 men, with which he set out to 
find Commodore Barclay, who had two large and four small vessels, with 63 
guns and 440 men. 

The two squadrons met at the western end of Lake Erie on the 10th of 
September^ Barclay centred such a furious fire upon the Lawrence, Perry's 
flagship, that in two hours she was in a sinking condition. Perry entered a 
small boat, and, exposed to a sharp fire, was rowed to the Niagara, on which 
he hoisted his flag. The battle was renewed, and, while the enemy was trying 
to form a new line of battle. Perry ran the Niagara directly through the fleet, 
delivering broadsides right and left. The other vessels were prompt in following 
her, and poured such a raking fire into the enemy that fifteen minutes later 
Barclay surrendered. The British commander had but one arm when the 
battle opened, and, before it ended, his remaining arm was shot ofi". He lost 
200 killed and wounded and 600 prisoners, while the Americans had 27 killed 
and 96 wounded. 

It has already been shown that this victory was of the utmost importance, 
for Proctor was waiting to invade Ohio, if it went his way, while General 
Harrison was also waiting to invade Canada, in the event of an American 
triumph. In sending news of his victory to General Harrison, Perry, in his 
hastily written dispatch, used the words which have been quoted thousands of 
times : " We have met the enemy and they are ours." It will be recalled that 
Harrison immediately embarked his troops on Perry's ships, and, crossing the 
lake, pursued Proctor to the Thames, where he decisively defeated him and 
ended all danger of an invasion of Ohio by the enemy. 

The American government novv began to heed the benefit of the severe 
lessons of defeat. The worthless generals were weeded out, and the army in 
western New York reorganized so efiectually that the country was cheered by a 
number of victories — proof that the rank and file were of the best quality and 
that their previous defeats were due to their leaders. 

13 



194 ADMINISTRATIONS OF 3IADIS0N. 

On July 3, 1814, Gens. Scott, Ripley, and Brown crossed the Niagara from 
Black Eock to Erie witli 3,000 men. Brown's ability had become so manifest 
that by this time he was a major-general. When he appeared in front of Fort Erie, 
it surrendered without resistance. Brown pursued a British corps of observa- 
tion down the river until it crossed Chippewa Creek and joined the main body. 
Brown withdrew and united also with the principal forces of the Americans, who 
attacked the British on the 5th of July, in their strong intrenchments behind 
the Chippewa. They were completely defeated, routed out of their defenses, and 
driven up the shore of Lake Ontario. Their Indian allies were so disgusted 
with the defeat of the British and the furious fighting of the Americans that all 
deserted the British commander. 

BATTLE OP LUNDY's LANE. 

The British army received reinforcements and turned back to meet the 
Americans who were pursuing them. The armies met, July 25th, at Lundy's 
Lane, within sight of Niagara Falls, where the fiercely contested battle, begin- 
ning at sunset, lasted until midnight. The British commander was wounded 
and captured and the enemy driven back. The loss of the Americans was 
serious. Scott was so badly wounded that he could take no further part in the 
war, Brown was less severely injwed, and Ripley withdrew with the army to 
Fort Erie. 

An exploit of Colonel James Miller deserves notice. At a critical point in 
the battle, General Brown saw that victory depended upon the silencing of a 
battery of seven guns stationed on a hill, that was pouring a destructive fire 
into the Americans. 

" Colonel," said he, " can you capture that battery ? " 

" I can try," was the modest reply, and a few minutes later Colonel Miller 
was in motion with his regiment. The darkness enabled the men to conceal them- 
selves under the shadow of a fence, along which they silently crept until they 
could peep between the rails and see the gunners standing with lighted matches 
awaiting the order to fire. Thrusting the muzzles of their guns through the 
openings, they shot down every gunner, and, leaping over the fence, captured 
the battery in the face of a hot infantry fire. The enemy made three attempts 
to recapture the battery, but were repulsed each time. When General Ripley 
retreated, he left the guns behind, so that they again fell into the hands of the 
British from whom they had been so brilliantly won. 

The enemy soon received reinforcements and besieged the Americans in 
Fort Erie. Brown, although still suffering from his wound, resumed command } 
and drove his besiegers once more beyond the Chippewa. The Americans | 
evacuated Fort Erie on the 5th of November, and recrossing the Niagara wen! j 



J 



PUNISHMENT OF THE CREEK INDIANS. 195 

into -winter quarters at Black Rock and Ontario. There were no more military 
operations during the war between Lakes Erie and Ontario. 

THE AEMY OF THE NORTH. 

General Wilkinson was so inefficient with the Army of the North that he 
was superseded by General Izard, who advanced with his force to the aid of 
General Brown at Fort Erie. This left Plattsburg uncovered, and the British 
decided to attack it by land, and to destroy at the same time the American 
flotilla on Lake Charajilain. 

Sir George Prevost, at the head of an army of 14,000 men, entered Ameri- 
can territory on the 3d of September, and three days later reached Plattsburg. 
The garrison withdrew to the south side of the Saranac, and jirepared to dispute 
the passage of the stream. Commodore Downie appeared off the harbor of 
Plattsburg, with the British squadron, September 11th. The American squad- 
ron, under Commodore Macdonough, was in the harbor, and consisted of two 
less barges than the enemy, 86 guns, and 820 men, while the English com- 
mander had 95 guns and more than a thousand men. 

During the battle which followed the British land forces made repeated 
attempts to cross the Saranac, but were defeated in every instance. The battle 
on the water lasted less than three hours, during which Commodore Downie waa 
killed, his vessel sunk, and the remainder sunk or captured. The destruction 
of the British squadron was complete, and the land forces withdrew during the 
night. England was so dissatisfied with the action of Sir George Prevost that 
he was dismissed from command. No more serious fighting took place in that 
section during the war. 

PUNISHMENT OF THE CREEK INDIANS. 

Mention has been made of the massacre at Fort Minnns in Alabama by 
the Creeks, August 30, 1813. Tennessee acted with prompt vigor. General 
Jackson at the head of 5,000 men marched into the Creek country and pun- 
ished the Indians with merciless rigor. After repeated defeats, the Creeks made 
a stand at the Great Horseshoe Bend of the Tallapoosa River. There a thousand 
warriors gathered, with their wives and children, prepared to fight to the last. 
The desperate battle was fought March 27, 1814, and at its close 600 Indians 
were killed and the remainder scattered. The spirit of the Creeks was crushed, 
and General Jackson's exploit made him the most popular military leader in 
the Southwest. 

Matters looked gloomy for the Americans at the beginning of 1814. Eng- 
land sent a formidable force of veterans to Canada, and another to capture 
Washington, while the main body expected to take New Orleans, with the 



196 ADMINISTRATIONS 01 MADISON 

intention of retaining the city and province of Louisiana upon the conclusion 
of peace. 

PREPARING FOR THE FINAL STRUGGLE. 

The American government gathered up her loins for the great struggle. 
The President was authorized to borrow $25,000,000, and to issue treasury 
notes to the amount of $5,000,000. Such sums are but bagatelles in these days, 
but in 1814 the credit of the government was so poor that the notes depreciated 
one-fifth of their face value. One hundred and twenty -four dollars were offered 
as a bounty for every recruit, while the j)ay, rations, and clothing were placed 
upon a generous scale. An order was issued increasing the regular army to 
66,000 men, and an embargo laid with the aim of stopping trade under British 
licenses was repealed in AjDril. 

The British cruisers kept the Atlantic coast in continual alarm. Entering 
Delaware Bay they burned every merchant vessel in sight. When the people 
of Lewiston refused to sell food to them, they bombarded their homes. In 
Chesapeake Bay Admiral Cockburn plundered private dwellings. Among 
the places sacked and burned were Lewes, Havre de Grace, Fredericktown, 
and Georgetown. More leniency was shown the New England coast because 
of her opposition to the war. Another inexcusable proceeding on the part of 
the invaders was that of persuading many slaves to leave their masters and join 
the enemy. This business compelled England, after the close of the war, to pay 
the United States one million and a quarter dollars, on the award of the Em- 
peror of Russia, to whom the question was submitted. 

CAPTURE AND BURNING OF "WASHINGTON. 

But this year saw the crowning disgrace to the American arms. The mis- 
management of affairs left our national capital defenseless. In August, 1814, 
Sir Alexander Cochrane carried a British army up the Chesapeake on board his 
squadron. Commodore Barney with his few ships had taken shelter in the 
Patuxent. Paying no attention to him, Ross landed his 5,000 veterans within 
40 miles of Washington and advanced against the city. The government had 
awakened to the threatened peril a short time before, and placed 500 regulars 
and 2,000 undisciplined militia under the command of General William H. 
Winder. 

Winder took a strong position at Bladensburg and awaited Ross and Coch- 
rane. The British army met with no opposition, and, upon reaching Marl- 
borough, found that Commodore Barney, acting under the orders of the secretary 
of war, had burned his fleet and hurried to Washington. The English com- 
mander arrived in sight of Washington on the 24th of August. His approach 
to Bladensburg- was over a bridge defended by artillery from Barney's flotilla, 






CAPTURE AND BURNING OF WASHINGTON. 



197 



wliich were handled by Barney and his sailors. They fought with the utmost 
heroism, repelling the British again and 
again; but the militia fled, and, when , ,--' \ 

Barney was wounded and his command ' «aSftss«!fe 

helpless, he surrendered. General Ross ' \ 

complimented him for his bravery and im- , ^ 

mediately paroled him. , -^ 

This was the only check encountered ' % 




BUKWING OF WASHINGTON. 

by the British in tlieir ad- 
vance upon AVashington. 
General Winder had learned 
enough of his militia to 
know that no dependence 
could be placed upon them, 
and he fled to Georgetown. 
The President, heads of 
departments, and most of 
the citizens joined in the 
stampede, and the advance 
guard of General Ross entered the city that evening. 

The British commander ofiered to spare the city for a large sum of money, 



198 ADMIl^lSTUATlUJStS UF MAJJltsUJS. 

but no one was within reach with authority to comply with his demand. Ross 
claimed that his flag of truce had been fired on, and he ordered the city to be 
burned. In the conflagration that followed, the President's house, the depart- 
ment offices, numerous private dwellings, the libraries and public archives, many 
works of art in the public buildings, the navy yard and its contents, a frigate 
on the stocks, and several small vessels were destroyed. The patent office and 
jail were the only public property spared. The burning of Washington was an 
outrage which was generally condemned in England. 

After a rest and the reception of reinforcements, Ross marched against 
Baltimore, which lie declared should be his winter quarters. While on the 
road he was mortally wounded by an American sharpshooter in a tree. Such a 
brave defense was made by Forts McHenry and Covington, guarding the narrow 
passage from the Patapsco into the harbor of Baltimore, that the British fleet 
and the land forces were repelled. The success of this defense inspired Francis 
S. Key to write our famous national song. The Star-Spangled Banner. 

THE HARTFORD CONVENTION. 

The war became intensely unpopular in New England. Its shipping suf- 
fered severely, and the demands for peace grew more clamorous. On the 15th 
of December, 1814, a convention of delegates, apjjointed by the Legislatures of 
Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Vermont, met in 
Hartford and held secret sessions for three weeks. An address was agreed upon 
charging the national government with carrying on a policy injurious to New 
England. Amendments were proposed to the Constitution, and a committee 
was selected to confer with the government at Washington and to propose that the 
revenues of New England should be applied to her own defense. An agree- 
ment was made that if their proposed action failed, and peace was not soon 
made, the convention should meet again in the following June. There was 
open talk of a withdrawal from the Union, and doubtless grave results would 
have followed had the war gone on. The Hartford Convention and the "Blue 
Lights" of Connecticut gave the final death-blow to the Federal party. 

A TREATY OF PEACE SIGNED. 

Despite the progress of the war, peace negotiations had been going on for 
a long time. Russia, whose system of government has always been the exact 
opposite of ours, has shown us marked friendship in many instances. As 
early as 1813 she offered to mediate between Great Britain and the United 
States. The President appointed five commissioners, John Quincy Adams, 
James A. Bayard, Henry Clay, Jonathan Russell, and Albert Gallatin, who 
were sent to Ghent, Belgium, where they were met by Lord Gambler, Henry 



GREAT VICTORY AT NEW ORLEANS. 199 

Goulburn, and William Adams, the commissioners for Great Britain. After 
long negotiations, the commissioners reached an agreement on the 24th of 
December, 1814. The treaty did not contain a word about the search of 
American vessels for alleged deserters, which was the real cause of the war, nor 
was any reference made to the wrongs done our commerce, and the rights of 
neutral nations were not defined. The Orders of Council, however, died of 
themselves, Great Britain never again attempting to enforce tliem. It was 
agreed that all places captured by either side during the progress of the war or 
afterward should be surrendered, and provisions were made for fixing the boun- 
dary between the United States and Canada. 

In those days, when tlie ocean telegraph was not thought of and there 
were no swift-going steamers, news traveled slowly, and it did not reach Wash- 
ington until February 4, 1815. Meanwhile, the most important battle of the 
war had taken place and several captures were made on the ocean. 

The Creek Indians had been so crushed by General Jackson that they 
ceded a large part of their lands to the Americans. They were sullen, and 
when a British squadron entered the Gulf of Mexico they eagerly did all they 
could to help the enemy. The squadron, by permission of the Spanish author- 
ities took possession of the forts of Pensacola, and fitted out an expedition 
against Fort Bower a*- the entrance to Mobile Bay. They attacked the fort, 
September loth, by sea and land, but were repulsed. Among the land assailants 
were sevei-al hundred Creek warriors, who thus received another lesson of the 
bravery of American soldiers. 

General Jackson, in command of the southern military district, was enraged 
by the course of the Spanish authorities. He marched from Mobile at the head 
of 2,000 Tennessee militia and a number of Choctaws, stormed Pensacola, 
November 7th, drove the British from the harbor, and compelled the Spanish 
governor to surrender the town. 

GEISTERAL JACKSON's GREAT VICTORY AT ITEW ORLEANS. 

Having completed his work in this summary fashion, he returned to 
Mobile, where he found an urgent call for him to go to the defense of New 
Orleans, which was threatened by a powerful force of the enemy. The invasion, 
to which we have referred in another place, was a formidable one and had been 
arranged a long time before. General Jackson reached New Orleans, Decem- 
ber 2d, and began vigorous pre25arations. He enlisted almost everybody capable 
of bearing arms, including negroes and convicts. One of the most famous 
freebooters that ever ravaged the Gulf of IMexico was Lafitte, to whom the 
British made an extravagant offer for his help, but he refused, and gave his ser- 
vices to Jackson. 



200 ADMINISTRATIONS OF MADISON. 

Jackson's vigor filled the city with confidence, but he was so strict that 
dissatisfaction was expressed, whereupon he declared martial law ; in other 
words, he took the city government into his own hands and ruled as he thought 
best. He neglected no precaution. Fort St. Philip, guarding the passage of the 
Mississippi at Detour la Plaquemine, was made stronger by new works, and a 
line of fortifications was built four miles below the city, on the left of the river, 
and extended eastward to an impassable cypress swamp. It was a disputed 
question for a time whether Jackson used cotton bales in the defenses of New 
Orleans, but it is established that he jilaced them on the tops of the intrench- 
ments. Cannon were also mounted at different points. The militia under 
General Morgan, and the crews and guns of a part of the squadron of Commo- 
dore Patterson, held the west bank of the river. These precrutions enabled the 
defenders to enfilade the approaching enemy. A detachment guarded the pass 
of Bayou St. John, above the city, and a number of gunboats awaited to dis- 
pute the passage of the river between Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Borgne. 

The British fleet appeared at the entrance to this channel, December 14th, 
and was immediately assailed by the American flotilla, which was destroyed 
before it could inflict serious damage. Left free to select the point of attack, 
the British sent a force in flat-bottomed boats to the extremity of the lake, 
where they landed in a swamp. They repelled an attack by Jackson, who fell 
back toward the city. On the 28th of December the British were within half 
a mile of the American lines. They began a fire of shells, but were repulsed 
by Jackson's artillery. 

The defenders numbered some 3,000 militia, who were stationed in a line 
of intrenchments a mile long and four miles from the town. This line was 
protected by a ditch in front, flanked by batteries on the other side of the river, 
and, in addition, eight other batteries were in position. 

The British worked slowly forwnrd until on the first day of the year they 
were within less than a quarter of a mile of New Orleans. As the best material 
at hand from which to erect breastworks they used hogsheads of sugar and 
molasses, wliich were sent flying in fragments by the American cannon. Several 
attacks upon the defenders were repulsed and the final assault delayed for a 
number of days. 

Sir Edward Pakenham, a veteran of the Peninsular wars, and a brother- 
in-law of Wellington, the conqueror of Napoleon, was in command of the 
reinforcements. While the advance went on slowly, 3,000 militia joined Jackson. 
They were composed mainly of Kentucky and Tennessee riflemen, the finest 
marksmen in the world. They were men, too, who did not lose their heads in 
battle, but, kneeling behind their intrenchments, coolly took aim and rarely 
threw away a shot. 



GREAT VICTORY AT NEW ORLEANS. 



201 



On the morning of Jan. 8, 1815, the English army advan^ced against the 
A.merican intrenchments. They numbered nearly 8,000 veterans, and England 
never placed a finer body of n.en in the field. The American riflemen, with 
shotted cannon and . leveled rifles, 



calmly await 
mand to open 
ing host. 



ed the c o m - 
on the advanc- 
They were 




WEATHERSFOBD AND GENEBAL JACKSON. 

formed in two lines, those at the rear loading for those in front, who were thus 
enabled to keep up an almost continuous fire. 

Before the outburst of flame the British dissolved like snow in the sun, 
but the survivors with unsurpassable heroism persisted until it was apparent that 



202 ADMINISTRATIONS OF MADISON. 

not a man would be left alive if they maintained their ground. Then they fell 
back to decide ujDon some other method of attack. 

Angered by his rejjulse, Pakenham ran to the head of a regiment bearing 
scaling ladders and called upon his men to follow him. Only a few succeeded 
in piercing the American lines. Pakenham fell, mortally wounded ; his suc- 
cessor was killed, and the third in command was so badly injured that he could 
give no orders. "All that were left of them " i-etreated. From the opening to 
the close of the battle was less than half an hour, during which the British lost 
2,500 in killed, wounded, and prisoners, one-third being killed. On the Amer- 
ican side eight were killed and thirteen wounded. A few days later the British 
withdrew to their ships and sailed for the West Indies, where they learned of 
the signing of the treaty of peace. 

WOEK OF THE AMERICAN l^AVY. 

It will be noticed that as the war progressed the principal fighting changed 
from the ocean to the land. Several encounters took place on the sea, but they 
were mostly unimportant, and did not always result favorably for us. In Sep- 
tember, 1814, Captain Samuel C. Reid, in command of the privateer Armstrong, 
while lying in the harbor of Fayal, one of the Azores, was attacked by a fleet 
of boats from three British frigates. He fought ail through the night, and, 
although outnumbered twenty to one, made one of the most remarkable defenses 
in naval annals. 

On the 16th of January following, the President was captured by the British 
ship Endymion. On the 20th of Februaiy, while Captain Charles Stewart was 
cruising off Cape St. Vincent, in the Constitution, with no thought that peace 
had been declared, he fell in with two British brigs, the Cyane and the Levant. 
It was a bright moonlight night, and, after a brief engagement, in which Stewart 
displayed consummate seamanship, he captured both vessels. 

But peace had come and was joyfully welcomed everywhere. Tlie war had 
cost us heavily in men, ships, and property ; the New England factories were 
idle, commerce at a standstill, and the whole country in a deplorable state. But 
everything now seemed to spring into life under the glad tidings. The shijijiing 
in New England was decked with bunting, and, within twenty-four hours after 
the news arrived, the dockyards rang with the sound of saw and hammer. 



1 

•4 



WAR WITH ALGIERS. 

The Barbary States did not forget their rough treatment at the hands of i 

the United States a few years before. During the war they allowed the British j 

to capture American vessels in their harbors, and sometimes captured them on { 

their own account. In 1812 the Dey of Algiers compelled the Amei-ican consul j 



PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1816. 20b 

to pay him a large sum of money to save himself, family, and a few friends from 
being carried ofi" into slavery. We were too busily occupied elsewhere to give 
this barbarian attention, but in March, 1815, war was declared against Algiers, 
and Commodores Decatur and Bainbridge were sent to the Mediterranean with 
two squadrons to conduct operations. 

They did it to perfection. After capturing several frigates, they approached 
the city of Algiers and demanded the immediate surrender of every American 
prisoner, full indemnity for all jiroperty destroyed, and the disavowal of all 
future claims to tribute. The terrified Dey eagerly signed the treaty placed 
before him on the quarter-deck of Decatur's ship. The Pasha of Tunis was com- 
pelled to pay a round sum on account of the American vessels he hfid allowed 
the British to capture in his harbor during the war. When he had done this, 
the Pasha of Tripoli was called upon and forced to make a similar contribution 
to the United States treasury. 

FOUNDING OF THE NATIONAL COLONIZATION SOCIETY. 

The negro had long been a disturbing factor in politics, and, in 1816, 
the National Colonization Society was formed in Princeton, N. J., and imme- 
diately reorganized in Washington. Its object was to encourage the emancipa- 
tion of slaves by obtaining a place for them outside the United States, whither 
they might emigrate. It was hoped also that by this means the South would be 
relieved of its free black population. The scheme was so popular that branches 
of the society were established in almost every State. At first free negroes were 
sent to Sierra Leone, on the western coast of Africa, under the equator. Later, 
for a short time, they were taken to Sherbrooke Island, but in 1821 U permanent 
location was purchased at Cape Mesurado, where, in 1847, the colony declared 
itself an independent republic under the name of Liberia. Its capital, Monrovia, 
was named in honor of the President of the United States. The republic still 
exists, but its functions were destroyed by the war for the Union, which abolished 
slavery on this continent, and Liberia has never been looked upon with great 
favor by the colored peoj)le of this country. 

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1816. 

It has already been shown that the course of the Federal party in the War 
of 1812 ruined it. The Federal nominee for the presidency was Rufus King, 
of New York. He was a native of Maine, a graduate of Harvard College, and 
had served as a delegate to the Continental Congress. It was he who in 1785 
moved the provision against slavery in the Northwest Territory, and he was an 
active member of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, afterward returning 
to Massachusetts and giving all his energies to bringing about the ratification of 



204 ADMINISTRATIONS OF MADISON. 

the Constitution. He was United States senator from New York in 1789- 
1796; was minister to London, 1796-1803; and again a United States senator, 
1813-1825. 

John Eager Howard, the candidate for the vice-presidency, had hardly a 
less claim ujion the recognition of his countrymen, for he joined the patriot 
army at the outbreak of the Revolution, and fought with marked gallantry at 
White Plains, Germantown, Monmouth, and Camden, and won special honor 
at the Cowpens in 1781. He w^as afterward governor of Maryland, declined 
the portfolio of war in Washington's cabinet, and was United States senator 
from 1796 to 1803. 

These facts are given to show the character and standing of the candidates 
of the Federalists in the presidential election of 1816. The following was the re- 
sult: For President, James Monroe, of Virginia, Republican, 133; Rufus King, of 
New York, Federalist, 34. For Vice-President, Daniel D. Tompkins, of New 
York, Republican, 183 ; John Eager Howard, of Maryland, Federalist, 22 ; 
James Ross, of Pennsylvania, 5; John Marshall, of Virginia, 4; Robert G. 
Harper, of Maryland, 3. Vacancies, 4. Thus Monroe became President and 
Tomjjkins Vice-President. 




FIRST TKAIN OF CABS IN AMERICA. 

CHAPTER X. 

ADMINISTRATIONS OK JAIVIES NIONROE AND 
JOHN QUINCY ADAIVIS. 1817-1829. 

James Monroe — The "Era of Good Feeling" — The Seminole War — Vigorous Pleasures of General 
Jackson — Admission of Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama, Maine, and Missouri — The Missouri Com- 
promise — The Monroe Doctrine — Visit of Lafayette — Introduction of the Use of Gas — Completion 
of the Erie Canal — The First " Hard Times" — Extinction of the West Indian Pirates — Presidential 
Election of 1824 — John Quincy Adams — Prosperity of the Country- -Introduction of the Railway 
Locomotive — Trouble with the Cherokees in Georgia — Death of Adams and JefiFerson — Congressional 
Action on the TariflF — Presideatial Election of 1828. 



JAMES MONROE. 

James Monroe, the fifth Presi- 
dent of the United States, was born 
at Monroe's Creek, Westmoi'eland 
County, Virginia, April 28, 1758, 
and died July 4, 1831. It will be 
noticed that four out of the first five 
Presidents were nati\»es of Virginia, 
and in course of time three others 
followed. It will be admitted, there- 
fore, that the State has well earned 
the title of the " Mother of Presi- 
dents." 

Monroe received his education 
at William and Mary College, and 
was a soldier under Washington. 
He was not nineteen years old when, 
as lieutenant at the battle of Tren- 
ton, he led a squad of men who cap- 
tured a Hessian battery as it was 
about to open fire. He studied law 
under Jefferson, was elected to the 
Virginia House of Burgesses, and, 
when twenty-five years old, was a delegate to the Continental Congress. 

(205) 




JAMES MONKOE. 

(1768-1831.) Two terms, 1817-182Sk 



He 



206 ADMINISTRATIONS OF MONROE AND ADAMS. 

was minister plenipotentiary to France in 1794, but his course displeased the 
administration and he was recalled. From 1799 to 1802 he was governor of 
Virginia, and, in the latter year, was sent to France by President Jefferson 
to negotiate the purchase of Louisiana. In 1811 he was agaiji governor 
of Virginia, and shortly afterward appointed secretary of State by Madison. 
He also served as secretary of war at the same time, and, as the treasury was 
empty, pledged his private means for the defense of New Orleans. Monroe 
was of plain, simple manners, of excellent judgment and of the liighest integrity. 
While his career did not stamp him as a man of genius, yet it proved him to be 
that which in his situation is better — an absolutely "safe" man to trust with the 
highest office in the gift of the American people. Under Monroe the United 
States made greater advancement than during any previous decade. 

Everything united to make his administration successful. The Federal 
party having disappeared, its members either stopped voting or joined the Re- 
publicans. Since, therefore, everybody seemed to be agreed in his }X)litical 
views, the period is often referred to as " tlie era of good feeling," a condition 
altogether too ideal to continue long. 

TARIFF LEGISLATION. 

Shortly after Monroe's inauguration he made a tour through the country, 
visiting the principal cities, and contributing by his pleasing manner greatly to 
his popularity. The manufactures of the country were in a low state because of 
the cheapness of labor in Great Britain, which enabled the manufacturers there 
to send and sell goods for less prices than the cost of their manufacture in this 
country. Congress met the difficulty by imposing a tax upon manufactured 
goods brought hither, and thereby gave oui- people a chance to make and sell 
the same at a profit. The controversy between the advocates of free trade and 
protection has been one of the leading questions almost from the first, and there 
has never been and probably never will be full accord upon it. 

THE SEMINOLE WAR. 

Perhaps the most important event in the early part of Monroe's adminis- 
tration was the Seminole war. Those Indians occupied Florida, and could hide 
themselves in the swampy everglades and defy pursuit. Many runaway slaves 
found safe refuge there, intermarried with the Seminoles, and made their homes 
among them. They were not always fairly treated by the whites, and committed 
many outrages on the settlers in Georgia and Alabama. When the Creeks, who 
insisted they had been cheated out of their lands, joined them, General Gaines 
was sent to subdue the savages. He failed, and was caught in such a dangerous 
situation that General Jackson hastily raised a force and marched to his assistance 



^ 



THE SEMINOLE WAR. 



207 



Since Florida belonged to Spain, Jackson was instructed by our government 
not to enter the country except in pursuit of the enemy. "Old Hickory" was 
not the man to allow himself to be hampered by such orders, and, entering 
Florida in March, 1818, he took possession the following month of the Spanish 
post of St. Mark's, at the head of Appalachee Bay. Several Seminoles were 
captured, and, proof being obtained that they were the leaders in a massacre of 
some settlers a short time before, Jackson hanged every one of them. 

Advancing into the in 
terior, he captured two British 
subjects, Robert C. Ainbrister, 
an Englishman, and Alexan- 
der Arbuthnot, a Scotchman. 
There seemed to be no doubt 
that the latter had been guilty 
of inciting the Indians to com- 
mit their outrages, and both 
were tried by court-martial, 
which sentenced Arbuthnot to 
be hanged and Ambrister to 
receive fifty lashes and un- 
dergo a year's imprisonment. 
Jackson set aside the verdict, 
and shot the Englishman and 
hanged the Scotchman. He 
then marched against Pensa- 
cola, the capital of the prov- 
ince, drove out the Spanish 
authorities, captured B a r - 
rancas, whose troops and offi- 
cials were sent to Havana. 

Jackson carried things 
with such a high hand that 
Spain protested, and Congress had to order an investigation. The reporl 
censured Jackson ; but Congress passed a resolution acquitting him of all blame, 
and he became more pojiular than ever. 

Spain was not strong enough to expel the Americans, and she agreed to a 
treaty, in October, 1820, by which East and West Florida were ceded to the 
United States, the latter paying Spain $5,000,000. The Sabine River, instead 
of the Rio Grande, was made the dividing line between the territories of the 
respective governments west of the Mississippi. Jackson was the first governor 




AN INDIAN'S DECLAKATION OF WAR. 



208 ADMINISTRATIONS OF MONROE AND ADAMS. 

of Florida, and, as may be supposed, he had a stormy time, but he straight- 
ened out matters with the same iron resolution that marked everything he did. 

STATES ADMITTED — THE MISSOUBI COMPROMISE. 

A number of States were admitted to the Union while Monroe was Presi- 
dent. The first was Mississippi, in 1817. The territory was claimed by 
Georgia, which gave it to the United States in 1802. Illinois was admitted in 
1818, being the third of the live States formed from the old Northwest Terri- 
tory. Alabama became a State in 1819, and had been a part of the territory 
claimed by Georgia. Maine was admitted in 1820, and, as has been shown, 
was for a long time a part of Massachusetts, and Missouri became a State in 1821. 

The strife over the admission of the last-named State was so angry that 
more than one j^erson saw the shadow of the tremendous civil Avar that was to 
darken the country and deluge it in blood forty years later. The invention of 
the cotton gin in 1793 had made cotton the leading industry of the South and 
given an enormous importance to slavery. The soil and the climate and econo- 
mic conditions caused it to flourish in the South, and the lack of such conditions 
made it languish and die out in the North. 

Missouri applied for admission in March, 1818, but it was so late in the 
session that Congress took no action. At the following session a bill was intro- 
duced containing a provision that forbade slavery in the projiosed new State. 
The debate was bitter and prolonged, accompanied by threats of disunion, but a 
compromise was reached on the 28th of February, 1821, when the agreement 
was made that slavery was to be permitted in Missouri, but forever prohibited 
in all other parts of the Union, north and west of the northern limits of Ar- 
kansas, 36° 30', which is the southei-n boundary of Missouri. The State was 
admitted August 21st, increasing the number to twenty-four. The census 
showed that in 1820 the population of the United States was 9,633,822. The 
State of New York contained the most people (1,372,111) ; Virginia next 
(1,065,116) ; and Pennsylvania almost as many (1,047,507). 

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1820. 

It was in the autumn of 1820, during the excitement over the admission 
of Missouri, that the presidential election occurred. The result is not likely 
ever to be repeated in the history of our country. There was no candidate 
against Monroe, who would have received every electoral vote, but for the action 
of one member, who declared that no man had the right to share that honor 
with Washington. He therefore cast his single vote for Adams of Massachu- 
setts. For Vice-President, Daniel D. Tompkins, Republican, received 218; 
Richard Stockton, of New Jersey, 8 ; Daniel Rodney, of Delaware, 4 ; Robert 



2 



COMPLETION OF THE ERIE CANAL. 209 

G. Harper, of Maryland, and Richard Rush, of Pennsylvania, 1 vote each. 
Monroe and Tompkins were therefore re-elected. 

THE MONROE DOCTRINE. 

South America has long been the land of revolutions. In 1821, there was 
a general revolt against Spain in favor of independence. Great sympathy was 
felt for them in this country, and, in March, 1822, Congress passed a bill recog- 
nizing the embryo republics as sovereign nations. In the following year Presi- 
dent JNIonroe sent a message to Congress iu which he declared that for the future 
the American continent was not to be considered as territory for colonization by 
any foreign power. This consecration of the whole Western Hemisphere to 
free institutions constitutes the Monroe Doctrine, one of the most precious 
and jealously guarded rights of the American nation. The memorable docu- 
ment which bears the President's name was written by John Quincy Adams, 
his secretary of State. 

America could never forget Lafayette, who had given his services without 
pay in our struggle for independence, who shed his blood for us, and who was 
the intimate and trusted friend of Washington. He was now an old man, and, 
anxious to visit the country he loved so well, he crossed the ocean and landed 
in New York, in August, 1824. He had no thought that his coming would 
cause any stir, and was overwhelmed by the honors shown him everywhere. 
Fort Lafayette saluted him as he sailed up New York Bay, and processions, 
parades, addresses, feastings, and every possible attention were given to him 
throughout his year's visit, during which he was emphatically the "nation's 
guest." Nor did the country confine itself to mere honors. He had been treated 
badly in France and was poor. Congress made him a present of $200,000 in 
money, and sent him home in the frigate Brandywine, named in his honor, for 
it was at the battle of the Brandywine that Lafayette was severely wounded. 

An important invention introduced into this country from England in 
1822 was lighting by gas, which soon became universal, to be succeeded in later 
years by electricity. Steamboat navigation was common and travel by that 
means easy. On land we were still confined to horseback and stages, but there 
was great improvement in the roads, through the aid of Congress and the differ- 
ent States. 

completion of the ERIE CANAL. 

The Erie Canal, connecting Buffalo and Albany, was begun on the 4th of 
July, 1817, its most persistent advocate being Governor De Witt Clinton. It 
was costly, and the majority believed it would never pay expenses. They 
dubbed it " De Witt Clinton'&sDitch," and ridiculed the possibility that it would 
prove of public benefit. In October, 1825, it was opened for public traffic. It 

14 



210 ADMINISTRATIONS OF MONROE AND ADAMS. 

is 363 miles long, having the greatest extent of any canal in the world. It 
passes through a wonderfully fertile region, which at that time was little more 
than a wilderness. Immediately towns and villages sprang into existence along 
its banks. Merchandise could now be carried cheaply from tlie teeming WesU 
through the Great Lakes, the Erie Canal, and the Hudson River, to New York 
City and the Atlantic. Its original cost was $7,600,000, and its earnings were 
so enormous that in many single years they amounted to half that sum. It is 
now operated by the State without charge to those using it. 

No combination of statesmen are wise enough to prevent the occasional 
recurrence of " hard times." Nearly everyone has a cure for the blight, and 
the intervals between them are irregular, but they still descend upon us, when 
most unexpected and when it seems we are least prepared to bear them. No 
one needs a long memory to recall one or two afflictions of that nature. 

THE FIKST "hard TIMES." 

The first financial stringency visited the country in 1819. The establish- 
ment in 1817 of the Bank of the United States had so imj^roved credit and in- 
creased the facilities for trade that a great deal of wild speculation followed. The 
officers of the branch bank in Baltimore were dishonest and loaned more than 
$2,000,000 beyond its securities. The President stojjped the extravagant loans, 
exposed the rogues, and greatly aided in bringing back the country to a sound 
financial basis, although the Bank of the United States narrowly escaped bank- 
ruptcy — a calamity that would have caused distress beyond estimate. 

Amid the stirring political times our commeice suffered from the pirates 
who infested the West Indies. Their depredations became so annoying that in 
1819 Commodore Perry, of Lake Erie fame, was sent out with a small squadron 
to rid the seas of the pests Before he could accomplish anything, he was 
stricken with yellow fever and died. Other squadrons were dispatched to 
southern waters, and in 1822 more than twenty piratical vessels were destroyed 
in the neighborhood of Cuba. Commodore Porter followed up the work so 
effeotively that the intolerable nuisance was permanently abated. 

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1824. 

There were plenty of presidential candidates in 1824. Everybody now was 
a Republican, and the choice, therefore, lay between the men of that j^olitical 
faith. The vote was as follows : Andrew Jackson, of Tennessee, 99 ; John Quincy 
Adams, of Massachusetts, 84 ; Henry Clay, of Kentucky, 37 ; William H. Craw- 
ford, of Georgia, 41. For Vice-President : John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina, 
182 ; Nathan Sandford, of New York, 30 ; Nathaniel Macon, of North Carolina, 
24 ; Andrew Jackson, 13 ; Martin Van Buren, of New York, 9; Henry Clay, 2. 



J 



JOHN qUINCY ADAMS. 



911 



This vote sliowed that no candidate was elected, and the election, there- 
fore, was thrown into the House of Representatives. Although Jackson was 
far in the lead on the popular and electoral vote, the friends of Clay united 
with the supporters of Adams, who became President, with Calhoun Vice- 
President, The peculiar character of this election led to its being called the 
" scrub race for the presidency." 



JOHlsr QUINCY ADAMS. 

John Quincy Adams, the sixth President, was born at Braintree, Massar 
chusetts, July 11, 1767, and was 
the son of the second President. 
He was given every educational ad- 
vantage in his youth, and when 
eleven years old accompanied his 
father to France and was placed in 
a school in Paris. Two years later 
he entered the University of Ley- 
den, afterward made a tour through 
the principal countries of Europe, 
and, returning home, entered the 
junior class at Harvard, from which 
he graduated in 1788. Washington 
appreciated his ability, and made 
him minister to The Hague and 
afterward to Portugal. When his 
father became President he trans- 
ferred him to Berlin. The Federal- 
ists elected him to the United States 
Senate in 1803, and in 1809 he 
was appointed minister to Russia. 
He negotiated important commer- 
cial treaties with Prussia, Sweden, and Great Britain, and, it will be remem- 
bered, he was leading commissioner in the treaty of Ghent, which brought the 
War of 1812 to a close. He was a man of remarkable attainments, but he pos- 
sessed little magnetism or attractiveness of manner, and by his indifference 
failed to draw warm friends and supporters around him. Adams was re- 
elected to Congress repeatedly after serving out his term as President. He was 
seized with apoplexy while on the point of rising from his desk in the House 
of Representatives, and died February 23, 1848. 

The country was highly prosperous during the presidency of the younger 



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JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 
(1767-1848.) One term, 1825-1829. 



212 ADMINISTRATIONS OF MONROE AND ADAMS. 

Adams. The public debt, to which the War of 1812 added $80,000,000, began 
to show a marked decrease, money was more plentiful, and most important of 
all was the introduction of the steam locomotive from England. Experiments 
bad been made in that country for a score of years, but it was not uutil 1829 
that George Stephenson, the famous engineer, exhibited his "Rocket," which 
ran at the rate of nearly twenty miles an hour. 

INTKODUCTION OF THE STEAM LOCOMOTIVE. 

The first clumsy attempts on this side were made in 1827, when two short 
lines of rails were laid at Quincy, near Boston, but the cars were drawn by horses, 
and, when shortly after, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was chartered, the 
intention was to use the same motor. In 1829, a steam locomotive was used on the 
Delaware and Hudson Canal Railroad, followed by a similar introduction on the 
Baltimore and Ohio Road. The fii'st railroad chartered exjjressly for steam was 
granted in South Carolina for a line to run from Charleston to Hamburg. The 
first locomotive made by Stephenson was brought across the ocean in 1831. 
The Americans set to work to make their own engines, and were successful in 
1833. It will be noted that these events occurred after the administration of 
Adams, 

THE CHEEOKEES IN GEOKGIA. 

Most of the country east of the Mississippi was being rapidly settled. 
Immense areas of land were sold by the Indian tribes to the government and 
they removed west of the river. The Cherokees, however, refused to sell their 
lands in Georgia and Alabama. They were fully civilized, had schools, churches, 
and newspapers, and insisted on staying upon the lands that were clearly their own. 
Georgia was equally determined to force them out of the State, and her govern- 
ment was so high-handed that President Adams interfered for their protection. 
The governor declared that the Indians must leave, and he defied the national 
government to prevent him from driving them out. The situation of the Chero- 
kees finally became so uncomfortable that, in 1835, they sold their lands and 
joined the other tribes in the Indian Territory, west of the Mississippi. 

AN IMPRESSIVE OCCURRENCE. 

One of the most impressive incidents in our history occurred on the 4th of 
July, 1826, when John Adams and Thomas Jefierson died. It was just half a 
century after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, of which Jeffer- 
son was the author and whose adoption Adams secured. 

Adams attained the greatest age of any of our Presidents, being nearly 
ninety-one years old when he died. He retained the brightness of his mind, 
his death being due to the feebleness of old age. When he was asked if he knew 



i 



AN IMPRESSIVE OCCURRENCE. 



213 



the meaning of the joyous bells that were ringing outside, his wan face lighted 
up, and he replied : " It is the 4th of July ; God bless it I 
uttered a few minutes later : " Jefferson still survives." 

It was a 
the part of Adams, 
passed away 
before, in 
fourth 



His last words, 

natural error on 
but Jefferson had 
several hours 
his eighty- 
year, 
died 




JOHNNY BtTLy.." OH WO. 1. 

(The firsl locomotlTe ueed.) 



quietly, surrounded by friends, with his mind full of the inspiring associations 
connected with the day. His last words were : " I resign my soul to God, 
and my daughter to my country." 



214 ADMINISTRATIONS OF MONROE AND ADAMS. 

Au important issue of the younger Adams' administration was the tariff. 
Naturally the South were opposed to a protective tariff, because they had no 
manufactures, and were, therefore, compelled to pay higher prices for goods than 
if admitted free of duty. A national convention was held at Harrisburg, 
Pennsylvania, in the summer of 1827, to discuss the question of the protection 
of native industry. Only four of the slave-holding States were represented, but 
the members memorialized Congress for an increase of duties on a number of 
articles made in this country. In the session of 1827-28, Congress, in defer- 
ence to the general sentiment, passed a law which increased the duties on fabrics 
made of wool, cotton, linen, and on articles made from lead, iron, etc. The 
Legislatures of the Southern States protested against this action as unjust and 
unconstitutional, and in the presidential election of that year the entire electoral 
vote of the South was cast against Adams. 

The " Era of good feeling " was gone and politics became rampant. The 
policy of a protective tariff became known as the American System, and Henry 
Clay was its foremost cham2:)ion. Their followers began to call themselves 
National Republicans, while their ojiponents soon assumed the name of Demo- 
crats, which has clung to them ever since, though the National Republicans 
changed their title a few years later to "Whigs. 

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1828. 

The presidential election of 1828 resulted as follows: Andrew Jackson, 
Democrat, 178; John Quincy Adams, National Republican, 83. For Vice- 
President, John C. Calhoun, Democrat, 171 ; Richard Rush, of Pennsylvania, 
National Republican, 49 ; William Smith, of South Carolina, Democrat, 7. 
Jackson and Calhoun therefore were elected. 



I 



CHAPTER XI. 

ADJVriNISTRATIONS OR JACKSON, VAN BUREN, 
W. H. HARRISON, AND TYLER, 1829-184:5. 

Anilrew Jackson — "To the Victors Belong the Spoils" — The President's Fight with the United States 
Bank — Presidential Election of 1828 — Distribution of the Surplus in the United States Treasury 
Among the Various States — The Black Hawk War — The Nullification Excitement — The Seminole 
War — Introduction of the Steam Locomotive — Anthracite Coal, McCormick's Reaper, and Friction 
Matches — Great Fire in New York — Population of the United States in 1830 — Admission of Ar- 
kansas and Michigan — Abolitionism — France and Portugal Compelled to Pay their Debts to the 
United States — ^The Specie Circular, John Caldwell Calhoun, Henry Clay, and Daniel Webster — 
Presidential Election of 1836 — Martin Van Buren — The Panic of 1837 — Rebellion in Canada — Popu» 
lation of the United States in 1840 — Presidential Election of 1840 — William Henry Harrison — Hia 
Death — John Tyler — His Unpopular Course — The VVebster-Ashburton Treaty — Civil War in 
Rhode Island— The Anti-rent War in New York — A Shocking Accident — Admission of Florida — 
Revolt of Texas Against Mexican Rule — The Alamo — San Jacinto — The Question of the Annexa- 
tion of Texas— The State Admitted — The Copper Mines of Michigan — Presidential Election of 1844 
— The Electro-magnetic Telegraph — Professor Morse — His Labors in Bringing the Invention to 
Perfection. 

ANDREW JACKSON. 

Andrew Jackson, seventh President, ranks among the greatest of those who 
have been honored with the highest gift their countrymen can confer upon 
them. He was born of Scotch-Irish parents, at Waxhaw Settlement, on the 
line between North and South Carolina, March 15, 1767. His parents were 
wretchedly poor and he received only a meagre education. His father died just 
before the birth of his son, who enlisted in the patriot army when but thirteen 
years old, and was captured at the battle of Hanging Kock. When a British 
officer ordered the boy to clean his boots, he refused. He was brutally beaten 
for his stubbornness ; he told the officer that he might kill him, but he could 
never make a servant of him. 

Shortly afterward he was seized with smallpox and was abandoned to die, 
but his mother secured his release and nursed him back to health. She died 
soon afterward, and, while still a boy, Andrew was left without a single near 
relative. At the close of the Revolution, he took up the study of lavj^ pursuing 
it in a desultory way, until his removal to Nashville, at the age of twenty-one 
years. He threw his law books aside when the Indians began their outrages, and 
we have told of his striking services as a soldier and military leader, culmina- 
ting with his great victory at New Orleans, the anniversary of which is still 
widely celebrated. Jackson became the idol of his countrymen, and he pos- 



216 



JACKSON, VAN BUREN, HARRISON, AND TYLER. 



sessed many admirable qualities. Never, under any circumstances, did he betraj 
personal fear. He was ready to attack one man, ten men, a hundred, or a thou- 
sand, if he deemed it his duty to do so. He was honest to the core, intensely 
patriotic, and he either loved or hated a man. He would stand by a friend to 
the death, unless he became convinced of his unworthiness, when he instantly 
became his unrelenting enemy. 

He fought numerous duels, and stood up without a tremor in front of one 

of the most famous of duelists. 
When his opponent's bullet tore a 
dreadful wound in his breast, he 
resolutely repressed all evidence of 
pain until he had killed his antag- 
onist, in order that the latter should 
not have the pleasure of knowing 
he had hurt Jackson. 

While carrying one arm in a 
sling from this wound, he led a 
strong force into the Creek country. 
When the men were close upon star- 
vation, they mutinied. Jackson 
rode in front of them, pistol in hand, 
and declared he would shoot the 
first one who refused to obey his or- 
ders. Not a man rebelled. At the 
same time he divided all the food he 
had among them, which consisted 
solely of acorns. Nevertheless, he 
pressed on and utterly destroyed 
the Indian confederation. 
Added to these fine qualities was his chivalrous devotion to his wife, the 
unvarying respect he showed to the other sex, and the purity of his own character. 
Such a man cannot fail to exercise a powerful influence upon those with whom 
he comes in contact. In Jackson's estimation, the only living person whose 
views were right upon every question was himself. He was intolerant of opposi- 
tion, and merciless in his enmity of a personal opponent. He made mistakes, 
as was inevitable, and some of them wrought great injury ; but even his oppo- 
nents respected while they feared him, and the qualities which we have indi- 
cated gave him a warm place not only in the affection of his own generation but 
in the generations that came after him. 

When his tempestuous career came to a close, Jackson retired to his home, 




ANDREW JACKSON. 
(1767-1S45.) Two terms, 1829-1837. 



PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1832. 217 

known as the Hermitage, in Tennessee, where he passed his declining yeai-s in 
quiet and peace. He became a devout Christian, and died of consumption, June 

8, 1845. 

"to the victors belong the spoils." 

It need hardly be said that when Jackson became President he shared his 
authority with no one. He made up his cabinet of his personal friends, and, on 
the principle of " To the victors belong the spoils," that an administration to be 
successful must be composed of those of the same political faith with its head, he 
began a system of removals from office. The total number of such removals 
made by his predecessors was seventy-four, some of which were for cause. A 
year after his inauguration, Jackson had turned 2,000 office-)-!olders out, and, 
since their successors were obliged in many instances to remove subordinates, in 
pursuance of the same policy, it will be seen that the President adopted no half- 
way measures. 

He regarded the members of his cabinet as simply clerks, and, when he 
wished to consult with trusted friends, called together a certain number of boon 
associates, who became known as his " Kitchen Cabinet." 

Jackson's fight with the united states bank. 

One of the President's unbearable aversions was the United States Bank. 
He believed that its strength had been exerted against him, and in his first 
message to Congress, in December, 1829, he charged that it had failed to establish 
a uniform and sound currency and that its existence was contrary to the 
spirit of the Constitution. Its charter would expire in 1836, and Congress 
passed an act renewing it for fifteen years. Jackson vetoed the measure, and the 
two-thirds majority necessary to pass it again could not be obtained. 

By law the deposits of the bank were subject to the secretary of the treasury, 
who could not remove them without giving Congress his reasons for the step. 
Jackson ordered his secretary to remove the deposits, and when he very properly 
refused, the President removed him. He made Roger B. Taney, afterward 
chief justice of the United States, his new secretary of the treasury, and that 
pliable official promptly transferred the deposits to certain banks that had been 
selected. 

presidential election of 1832. 

Although the fight caused much excitement, and the action of Jackson was 
bitterly denounced, it added to his popularity, as was proven in the presidential 
election of 1832, when the following electoral vote was cast : Andrew Jackson, 
219 ; Henry Clay, of Kentucky, National Republican, 49 ; John Floyd, of 
Georgia, Independent, 11 ; William "Wirt, of Maryland, Anti-Masonic, 7. For 
Vice-President, Martin Van Buren, Democrat, of New York, received 189 



218 



JACKSON, VAN BUREN, HARRISON, AND TYLER. 



votes ; John Sergeant, of Pennsylvania, National Republican, 49 ; Henry Lee, 
of Massachusetts, Independent, 11 ; Amos Ellmaker, of Pennsylvania, Anti- 
Masonic, 7; William Wilkins, of Pennsylvania, Democrat, 30. On the popular 
vote, Jackson had more than a hundred thousand in excess of all the ethers in 
a total of one million and a quarter. It was a great triumph for " Old Hickory." 
It rarely happens in the history of any country that the government finds 

itself in the possession of more 
money than it wants. It became 
clear, however, that not only would 
the public debt soon be paid, but a 
surjilus would accrue. In view of 
this certainty, Henry Clay secured 
the passage of a bill in 1832, which 
reduced the tariff, except where 
such reduction came in conflict with 
home labor. Several years later, 
the surplus, amounting to $28,000,- 
000, was divided among the States. 

BLACK HAWK WAR. 

In the year named occurred 
the Black Hawk War. The tribes 
known as the Sacs, Foxes, and Win- 
nebagoes lived in the Territory of 
Wisconsin. The Sacs and Foxes 
made a treaty with the United 
States in 1830, by which they ceded 
all their lands in Illinois to the gov- 
ernment. When the time arrived 
for them to leave, they refused, and the governor called out a military force to 
compel them to remove beyond the Mississippi. Black Hawk, a famous chieftain 
of the Sacs, left, but returned at the head of a thousand warriors, gathered from 
the tribes named, and began a savage attack upon the settlements. The peril 
was so grave that the government sent troops under Generals Scott and Atkinson 
to Rock Island. On the way thither, cholera, which had never before appeared 
in this country, broke out among the troops and raged so violently that opera- 
tions for a time were brought to a standstill. 

When Atkinson was able to do so, he pushed on, defeated the Indians, and 
captured Black Hawk. He was taken to Washington, where he had a long 
talk with President Jackson, who gave him good advice, and induced him to 




SAMUEL HOUSTON. 
Oneof " Old Hickory's" volunteers, afterward famous in the Texan 
War for Independence. 
(1793-1863). 



1 



SECOND SEMINOLE WAR. 219 

sign a new treaty providing for the removal of his people to the Indian Terri- 
tory. Then Black Hawk was carried on a tour through the country, and was 
so impressed by its greatness that, when he returned to his people, he gave no 
more trouble. It is worth remembering that both Jefferson Davis and Abraham 
Lincoln served in the Black Hawk War. 

NULLIFICATION MEASURES IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 

South Carolina had long been soured over the tariff" measures, which, while 
they helped the prosperity of other sections of the Union, were opjDressive to her, 
because there were no manufactures carried on within her borders. When 
Congress, in the spring of 1832, imposed additional duties, she was so angered 
that she called a convention in November, at which her governor presided. 
The new tariff" was declared unconstitutional, and therefore null and void, and 
notice was given that any attempt to collect the duties would be resisted by South 
Carolina, wliich, unless her demands were granted, would withdraw from the 
Union and establish herself as an independent government. Other States 
endorsed her action and the situation became serious. 

President Jackson hated the tariff" as much as South Carolina, but his love 
for the Union was unquenchable, and, having sworn to enforce the laws, he was 
determined to do it in the face of any and all opposition. Because Vice-Presi- 
dent Calhoun sided with his native State, Jackson threatened to arrest him. 
Calhoun resigned, went home, and was elected United States senator. 

President Jackson issued a warning proclamation on the 10th of December, 
but South Carolina continued her war preparations, and the President sent 
General Scott, with the sloop-of-war Natchez, to Charleston, with orders to 
strengthen the garrison in the harbor. Scott displayed great discretion, and 
won the good-will of the citizens by his forbearance and courtesy. The other 
Southern States condemned the rash course of South Carolina, within which 
gradually appeared quite a number of supporters of the Union. Then Clay 
introduced a bill in Congress, which became law, providing for a gradual 
reduction of duties until the 30tli of June, 1842, when they were to reach a 
general level of twenty per cent. Calhoun, now a member of the Senate, sup- 
ported the compromise, and the threatened civil war passed away for the time. 

SECOND SEMINOLE WAR. 

Trouble once more broke out with the Seminoles of Florida. The aggra- 
vation, already referred to, continued. Runaway slaves found safe refuge in the 
swamps of the State and intermarried with the Indians. A treaty, known as 
that of Payne's Landing, was signed in May, 1832, by which a number of 
chiefs visited the country assigned to the Creeks, it being agreed that, if they 



220 JACKSON, VAN BUREN, HARRISON, AND TYLER. 

found it satisfactory, the Seminoles should remove thither. They reported in 
its favor, but the other leaders, incensed at their action, killed several of them, 
and declared, probably with truth, that they did not represent the sentiment of 
their people, and doubtless had been influenced by the whites to make their 
report. The famous Osceola expressed his opinion of the treaty by driving his 
hunting-knife through it and the top of the table on which it lay. 

It being clear that the Seminoles had no intention of going west. President 
Jackson sent General Wiley Thompson to Florida with a military force to drive 
them out. The Indians secured a delay until the spring of 1835, under the 
promise to leave at that time ; but when the date arrived, they refused to a man. 
Osceola was so defiant in an interview with General Thomjison that the latter 
put him in irons and held him prisoner for a couple of days. Then the chief 
promised to comply with the terms of the treaty and was released. He had not 
the slightest intention, however, of keeping his promise, but was resolved to be 
revenged upon Thompson for the indignity he had put upon him. 

In the month of December, 1835, while Thompson and a party of friends 
were dining near Fort King, with the windows raised, because of the mildness of 
the day, Osceola and a party of his warriors stole up and fired a volley through 
the windows, which killed Thompson and four of his companions. Before the 
garrison of the fort could do anything, the Seminoles had fled. 

dade's massacre. 

On the same day of this tragical occurrence, Major Francis L. Dade set 
out with 140 mounted men to the relief of General Clinch, stationed at Fort 
Drane, in the interior of Florida, where he was threatened with massacre. 
Dade advanced from Fort Brooke at the head of Tamjia Bay, and was not far 
on the road when he was fired upon by the Indians from ambush. Half the 
men were killed, including Major Dade. The remainder hastily fortified 
themselves, but were attacked in such overwhelming numbers that every man 
was shot down. Two wounded soldiers crawled into the woods, but afterward 
died. " Dade's Massacre " caused as profound a sensation throughout the 
country as did that of Custer and his command forty years later. 

The Seminole War dragged on for years. General Scott commanded for a 
time in 1836, and vigorously pressed a campaign in the autumn of that year; 
but when he turned over the command, in the spring of 1837, to General 
Zachary Taylor, the conquest of the Seminoles seemingly was as far off as ever. 
Taylor attempted to use a number of Cuban bloodhounds for tracking the mon- 
grels into the swamps, but the dogs refused to take the trail of the red men, and 
the experiment (widely denounced in the North) was a failure. 

In October, while Osceola and a number of warriors were holding a con- 



GREAT IMPROVEMENTS IN THE COMFORTS OF LIFE. 



221 



ference with General Jessup under the protection of a flag of truce, all were 
made prisoners, and Osceola was sent to Cliarleston, and died in Fort Moultrie 
in 1838. The war dragged on until 1842, when General Worth, after it had 
cost $40,000,000 and many lives, brought it to an end by destroying the crops 
of the Seminoles and leaving to them the choice between starvation and sub- 
mission. 

GREAT IMPROVEMENTS IN THE COMFORTS OF LIFE. 

The steam locomotive, of which we have given a brief history, came into 

1 




OSCEOLA'S INDIGNATION. 



general use during the presidency of General Jackson. When he left office 
1,500 miles of railway had been built, and many more were being laid in dif- 
ferent parts of the country. It wrought a social revolution by bringing all parts 
of the country into close communication, making settlement easy and the cost 
of moving crops slight. Anthracite coal was tested in 1837, and, because of its 
great advantages, was soon widely used. McCormick's reaper was patented in 
1834, and gave an enormous impetus to the cultivation of western lands. In 
the early days fire was obtained by the use of flint and steel or the sun-glass 



222 



JACKSON, VAN BUREN, HARRISON, AND TYLER. 



Friction matches appeared in 1836, and quickly supplanted the clumsy method 
that had been employed for centuries. 

On the night of December 16, 1835, New York City was visited by the 
most destructive fire in its history. The weather was so cold that the volunteer 
fire department could do little to check the conflagration, which destroyed 648 
builings, covering seventeen blocks and thirteen acres of ground. The value of 
the property lost was $20,000,000. 

THE COUNTRT IN 1830. 

The population of the United States in 1830 was 12,866,020, and the post- 
oflBces, which in 1790 numbered only 75, had grown to 8,450. The sales of the 

western lands had increased from $100,000 
to $25,000,000 a year, a fact which ex- 
plains the rapid extinguishment of the 
public debt. 

Two States were admitted to the 
Union, Arkansas in 1836 and Michi- 
gan in 1837. The former was a part 
of the Louisiana purchase, and was 
originally settled by the French at 
Arkansas Post, in 1635. Michigan 
was the fourth State formed from the 
Northwest Territory, and was first 
settled by the French at Detroit in 
1701. 
Abolitionism assumed definite form in 1831, when Wil- 
liam Lloyd Garrison, in his Boston paper, The Liberator, 
demanded the immediate abolition of slavery. Anti-slavery 
societies were organized in different parts of the country and the 
members became known as abolitionists. The South was incensed by the agi- 
tation, which reached its culmination in the great Civil War of 1861-65. 

FRANCE AND PORTUGAL FORCED TO TERMS. 

President Jackson impressed his personality upon everything with which 
he came in contact. We had been pressing a suit against France for the in- 
juries she inflicted upon our commerce during the flurry of 1798, but that 
country was so laggard in paying that the President recommended to Congress 
that enough French vessels should be captured to pay the bill. France flared 
up and threatened war unless Jackson apologized. A dozen wars would not 
have moved him to recall his words. England, however, mediated, and France 




WESTERN HAILHOAD 
IN EAKLIEB DAYS. 



JOHN a CALHOUN. 



223 



paid the debt. Portugal took the hint and lost no time in settling a similar 
account with us. 

President Jackson, imitating Washington, issued a farewell address to his 
countrymen. It was well written and patriotic ; but his last official act, which 
was characteristic of him, displeased many of his friends. The speculation in 
western lands had assumed such proportions that the treasury department, in 
July, 1836, sent out a circular ordering the collectors of the public revenues to 
receive only gold and silver in j^ayment. This circular caused so much con- 
fusion and trouble that, at the beginning of 1837, Congress modified it so that it 
would have given great relief. Jack- 
son held the bill in his possession 
until the adjournment of Congress, 
and thus prevented its becoming a 
law. 

The stormy years of Jackson's 
presidency brought into prominence 
three of the greatest of Americans. 
All, at different times, were mem- 
bers of the United States Senate, 
where their genius overshadowed 
those who under other circumstances 
would have attracted national at- 
tention. These men were John Cald- 
well Calhoun, Henry Clay, and 
Daniel Webster. 



JOHN C. CALHOUN. 

The first named was born near 
Abbeville, South Carolina, March 1 8, 
1782, and, graduating at Yale, studied 
law and early developed fine qualities 



"■srr-— 




1 


i 




I 


( 




I 

1 



JOHN C. CALHOUN. 

(1782-1S5U). 



of statesmanship. He was elected to the House of Rej^resentatives in 1811, and 
became at once the leader of the younger element of the Democratic party. He 
was a vehement advocate of the war with Great Britain, and, in 1817, was ap- 
pointed secretary of war under Monroe, serving to the close of bis presidency. 
It has been shown that he was elected Vice-President with Adams. Elected 
again with Jackson, the two became uncomjjromising opponents, and he i-e- 
Bigned in 1832, immediately entering the Senate, where he was accepted as the 
leader of the " State rights " men. 

His services as senator were interrupted for a short time when, in 1844-45, 



224 



JACKSON, VAN BUREN, HARRISON, AND TYLER. 



he acted as secretary of State in Tyler's admiuistration. He was determined to 
secure tlie admission of Texas and by his vigor did so, in the face of a strong 
opposition in the North/ He re-entered the Senate and resumed his leadership 
of the extreme southern wing of the Democratic party. He died in Washing- 
ton, March 31, 1850, while Clay's compromise measures were pending. 

Calhoun ranks among the foremost of American statesmen, and as the 
champion of the South his place is far above any who appeared before or who 
have come after him. As a speaker, he was logical, clear, and always deeply in 
earnest. Daniel Webster said of him : " He had the indisputable basis of all 

high character — unspotted integrity 
and honor unimpeached. Nothing 
groveling, low, or meanly selfish 
came near his head or his heart." 

HENRY CLAY. 

Henry Clay was born April 
12, 1777, in the "Slashes," Virginia. 
He studied law, and at the age of 
twenty removed to Kentucky, which 
is proud to claim the honor of hav- 
ing been his home and in reality 
his State. His great ability and win- 
ning manners made him popular 
everywhere. He served in the Ken- 
tucky Legislature, and, before he was 
thirty years old, was elected to the 
United States Senate, of which he 
was a member from 1806 to 1807. 
He soon became recognized as the 
foremost champion of the cause of 
internal improvements and of the 
tariff measures, known as the "American System." His speakership of the 
Kentucky Assembly, his term as United States senator again, 1809-11, and 
as a member of the House of Representatives in 1811, followed rapidly. 
Against precedent, being a newcomer, he was chosen Speaker, and served until 
his resignation in 1814. He was as strenuous an advocate of the war with 
Great Britain as Calhoun, and it has been stated that he was one of the com- 
missioners who negotiated the treaty of Ghent in 1814. The following year 
he was again elected to the House of Representatives, and acted without a 
break as Speaker until 1821. He was the most powerful advocate of the recog- 




HENRY CLAY. 

(1777-1852). 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 



225 



nition of the Spanish-American States in revolt, and but for Clay the Missouri 
Compromise would not have been prepared and adopted. 

Absent but a brief time from Congress, he again acted as Speaker in 
1823-25. President Adams appointed him his secretary of State, and he 
retired from office in 1829, but tw^o years later entered the Senate from Ken- 
tucky. For the following twenty years he was the leader of the Whig party, 
opposed Jackson in the bank controversy, and secured the tariff" compromise of 
1833 and the settlement with France in 1835, He retired from the Senate in 
1843, his nomination for the presidency following a year later. Once more he 
entered the Senate, in 1849, and 




brought about the great compromise 
of 1850. He died June 29, 1852. 

Clay's vain struggle for the 
presidency is told in the succeeding 
chapter. It seems strange that 
while he was indisputably the most 
popular man in the United States, 
he was not able to secure the great 
prize. The American Congress 
never knew a more brilliant debater, 
nor did the public ever listen to a 
more magnetic orator. His various 
compromise measures in the interest 
of the Union were beyond the at- 
tainment of any other man. His 
fame rests above that which any 
office can confer. His friends idol- 
ized and his opponents respected 
him. A strong political enemy once 
refused an introduction to him on 
the ground that he could not with- 
stand the magnetism of a personal acquaintance which had won "other good 
haters" to his side. John C. Breckinridge, his political adversary, in his 
funeral oration, said: "If I were to write his epitaph, I would inscribe, as the 
highest eulogy on the stone which shall mark his resting-place, 'Here lies a 
man who was in the public service for fifty years and never attempted to deceive 
his countrymen.'" 

DANIEL WEBSTER. 

Daniel Webster was born January 18, 1782, at Salisbury, New Hampshire, 
and died October 24, 1852. He was educated at Exeter Academy and graduated 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 



15 



226 JACKSON, VAN BUREN, HARRISON, AND TYLER. 

from Dartmouth College in 1801. After teaching school a short time in Maine, 
he studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1805, and began practice at Boscawen, 
in his native State. Two years afterward, he removed to Portsmouth, where he 
speedily became a leader at the bar and served in Congress from 1813 to 1817. 
At that time he was a moderate Federalist. He settled in Boston in 1818, 
and assumed a front rank among lawyers by his argument before the United 
States Supreme Court in the celebrated " Dartmouth College Case," which 
involved the obligation of contracts and the powers of the national government. 
He was congressman from Massachusetts from 1823 to 1827, was chairman of 
the judiciary committee, and attracted great attention by his speeches on Greece, 
then struggling for independence, and his pleas in favor of free trade. 

Webster's fame as an eloquent orator was already established. As such, he 
was the greatest that America ever produced, and many claim that he surpassed 
any who spoke the English tongue. Among his masterpieces were his speeches 
at Plymouth, 1820, on the bi-centennial ; at the laying of the corner-stone of 
the Bunker Hill monument, 1825 ; and his eulogy on Adams and Jefferson, 
1826. 

When he entered the United States Senate in 1827, he immediately took 
rank beside the giants, Calhoun and Clay. He was an advocate of the protec- 
tive tariff of 1823, and in 1830 reached the highest point of thrilling and 
eloquent logic in his reply to Robert Young Hayne, of South Carolina, who 
asserted that any State had the right to disobey such laws of Congress as 
she deemed unconstitutional. Webster's speech is a classic, never surpassed in 
its way, and the debate won for him the proud title of " Expounder of the 
Constitution." 

Naturally Webster opposed nullification, and he and Calhoun had many 
earnest contests worthy of two such masters of logic. W. H. Harrison appointed 
him his secretary of State, and he remained with Tyler until 1843. In 1845, 
he was again sent to the United States Senate, but in 1850 he alienated many 
of his former supjiorters by his speech in favor of Clay's compromise measures. 
He was secretary of State in 1850-52, and his death called out more addresses 
and testimonials than any other since that of Washington. 

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1836. 

The following was the electoral vote cast in 1886 : Martin Van Buren, of 
New York, Democrat, 170 ; William Henry Harrison, of Ohio, Whig, 73 ; Hugh 
L. White, of Tennessee, Whig, 26 ; Daniel Webster, of Massachusetts, Whig, 
14; Willie P. Mangum, of North Carolina, Whig, 11. For Vice-President, 
Richard M. Johnson, of Kentucky, Democrat, 147 ; Francis Granger, of New 
York, Whig, 77 ; John Tyler, of Virginia, Whig, 47 ; William Smith, of Ala- 



MARTIN VAN BUREK 



227 



hama, Democrat, 23. The vote for Johnson as Vice-President was not sufficient 
'to elect him, but he was chosen by the House of Representatives. 



MARTIN VAN BUEEN. 

Martin Van Buren, eighth President, was born December 5, 1782, at 
Kinderhook, N. Y., and died July 24, 1862. He became eminent as a lawyer, 
and his skill as a Democratic politician caused him to be known as the "Little 
Magician." He held a number of public offices, being State senator, United 
States senator, 1821-28 ; governor of New York, 1828-29 ; and secretary of 
State under Jackson, 1829-31, when 
Jackson appointed him minister to 
England, but his political opj^onents 
secured his defeat in the Senate. 
Becoming Vice-President under 
Jackson, he presided in the Senate 
from 1833 to 1837. Jackson was 
so pleased with Van Buren that he 
chose him as his successor. He 
was the Free Soil candidate for the 
presidency in 1848, and thereby 
brought about the defeat of Cass by 
Taylor. 

The administration of Van Bu- 
ren was one of the most unpopular 
we have ever had, and through no 
fault of his. A great deal of the 
prosperity of Jackson's term was 
superficial. He had been despotic, 
as shown in his removal of the 
United States Bank deposits and the 

^ MAETIN VAN BUREN. 

issue of the specie circular of 1836. (1782-1862.) one term, issT-mi. 

Confusion ensued in business, and an era of wild speculation followed a distribu- 
tion of the surplus in the treasury among the States. The credit system took the 
place of the cash system, banks sprang uj? like mushrooms, and an immense 
amount of in-edeemable money was put in circulation. 

These institutions were known as " wild-cat banks," and their method of 
defrauding the public was as follows : They bought several hundred thousands 
of cheap bills which, having cost them practically nothing, they used in offering 
higher prices for public lands than others could pay in gold and silver. They 
trusted to chance that their bills would not soon come back for redemption, but 




228 JACKSON, VAN BUREN, HARRISON, AND TYLER. 

if they did so, the banks " failed " and the holders of the notes lost every 
dollar. 

The fraud was a deliberate one, but the establishment of the national bank- 
ing law since then renders a repetition of the swindle impossible. 

THE PANIC OF 1837. 

Van Buren was hardly inaugurated when the panic of 1837 burst upon the 
country. The banks were forced to suspend specie payment, many failed, and 
mercantile houses that had weathered other financial storms toppled over like ten- 
pins. In two months the failures in New York and New Orleans amounted to 
$150,000,000. Early in May, a deputation of New York merchants and bankers 
called upon the President aud asked him to put off the collection of duties on 
imported goods, to rescind the specie circular, and convene Congress in the hope 
of devising measures for relief. All that the President consented to do was to 
defer the collection of duties. Immediately the banks in New York suspended 
specie payments, and their example was followed by others throughout the 
country. The New York Legislature tlien authorized the suspension of sj^ecie 
payments for a year. This left the national government without the means of 
paying its own obligations (since no banks would return its deposits in sjiecie) 
except by using the third installment of the surplus revenue that had been 
promised to the States. 

The country was threatened with financial ruin, and Congress convened in 
September. The President in his message proposed the establishment of an 
independent treasury for the custody of the public funds, and their total separa- 
tion from banking institutions. Suck a bill failed, but it became a law in 1840. 
Congress, however, obtained temporary relief by authorizing the issue of 
110,000,000 in treasury notes. 

The fact remained, however, that the country was rich, and though much 
distress prevailed, the financial stress began to lessen as more healthy methods 
Oi business were adopted. In 1838 most of the banks resumed specie payments, 
but the effect of the panic was felt for years. Since the distress occurred while 
Van Buren was President, the blame was placed by many upon the adminis- 
tration. 

At that time the present Dominion of Canada was divided into two prov- 
inces, known as Upper and Lower Canada. Dissatisfaction with some of the feat- 
ures of Great Britain's rule caused a rebellion in Lower Canada in 1837. Much 
sympathy was felt for them in this country, and especially in New York, from 
which a force of 700 men seized and fortified Navy Island, in Niagara River. 
There were plenty of loyalists in Canada, who made an attempt to capture the 
place, but failed. On the night of December 29, 1837, they impetuously 



WILLIA3I HENRY HABBISOK 



229 



attacked the supply steamer Caroline, killed twelve of the defenders, set the 
boat on fire, and sent it over Niagara Falls. 

President Van Buren issued a proclamation forbidding all interference in 
the affairs of Canada, and General Wood was sent to the frontier with a military 
force strong enough to compel obedience. He obliged the insurgents on Navy 
Island to surrender and pledge themselves to refrain from all unlawful acts. 
These vigorous measures soon brought quiet to the border, and England's wise 
policy toward the disaffected provinces has made Canada one of her most loyal 
provinces. 

The population of the United 
States in 1840 was 17,649,453, 
further evidence of the real pros- 
perity of the country. Railroad 
building went on vigorously, there 
being fully 4,000 miles in operation 
at the close of Van Buren's terra. 

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1840. 

The following was the presiden- 
tial vote of 1840: William Henry 
Harrison, of Ohio, Whig, 234; 
Martin Van Buren, 60. For Vice- 
President, John Tyler, 234; R. M. 
Johnson, 48; L. W. Tazewell, of 
Virginia, Democrat, 11; James K. 
Polk, of Tennessee, Democrat, 1. 

WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

William Henry Ha —ison, ninth 
President, was born February 9, 1773, 
in Virginia, and was the son of Benjamin Harrison, a signer of the Declaration of 
Independence, and afterward governor of Virginia. The son graduated from 
Hamjxlen-Sidney College, and took up the study of medicine, but was fond of 
military matters, and, entering the army of St. Clair, he displayed great bravery 
and skill. He helped General Wayne win his victory over the Indians in 
1794, and was rapidly promoted. He became secretary of the Northwest Terri- 
tory in 1798, and the following year was made delegate to Congress. In 1800, 
he was appointed governor of Indiana Territory, and was acting as such when 
he won his decisive victory at Tippecanoe, in the autumn of 1811. An account 
\ns been given of his brilliant services in the War of 1812. 




WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

(l"7o-]841.) Oue nioiuli, 1841. 



230 JACKSON, VAN BUREN, HARRISON, AND TYLER. » 

He attained the rank of major-general in the regular army, but resigned in 
1814. He was congressman from 1816 to 1819, United States senator from 
1825 to 1828, and United States minister to the United States of Columbia, 
1828-29. 

President Harrison wore no hat or overcoat while delivering his inaugural. 
Although accustomed to the hardships of the frontier, and naturally one of the 
most rugged of men, he was now old and weak in body. His imprudence, 
added to the annoyance from the clamorous office-seekers, drove him frantic. 
He succumbed to pneumonia and died on the 4th of April, just one month 
after his inauguration. He was the first President to die in office, and an im- 
mense concourse attended his funeral, his remains being interred near North 
Bend, Ohioi 

JOHN TYLER. 

As provided by the Constitution, the Vice-President, John Tyler, was 
immediately sworn into office as his successor. Like many of his prede- 
cessors, John Tyler was a native of Virginia, where he was born March 29, 
1790. He possessed great natural ability and was a practicing lawyer at the 
age of nineteen, and a member of the State Legislature at twenty-one. When 
thirty-five, he was chosen governor of Virginia, and was a United States sena- 
tor from 1827 to 1836. 

Since he was the first President not elected to the office, there was con- 
siderable discussion among the politicians as to his precise status. It was con- 
tended by some that he was chief executive " in trust," and was therefore bound 
to carry out the policy of his immediate predecessor. Tyler insisted that he 
was as much the President, in every respect, as if he had been elected by the 
peojile to that office, and in this insistence he was unquestionably right. 

Tyler quickly involved himself in trouble with the Whigs. They passed 
an act to re-establish the United States Bank, whose charter expired in 1836, 
though it had continued in operation under the authority of the State of Penn- 
sylvania. President Tyler vetoed the bill. He suggested some modifications, 
and it was passed again, but to the Indignant amazement of his party he vetoed 
it a second time. He was declared a traitor and widely denounced. All his 
cabinet resigned, with the exception of Daniel Webster, who, as stated else- 
where, remained until 1843, in order to complete an important treaty with 
England then under negotiation. 

THE WEBSTEK-ASHBURTON TREATY. 

This was known as the Webster- Ashbur ton Treaty. Our northeastern 
boundary was loosely defined by the treaty of 1783, and it was finally agreed 
by Great Britain and the United States to refer the questions in dispute to three 



THE ANTI-RENT WAR IN NEW YORK. 



231 



commissions to be jointly constituted by the two countries. The first of these 
awarded the islands in Passamaquoddy Bay to the United States ; the third 
established the boundary line from the intersection of the forty-fifth parallel 
with the St. Lawrence to the western point of Lake Huron. It remained 
for the second commission to determine the boundary from the Atlantic to the 
St. Lawrence. The question was a bone of contention for many years, and at 
last was referred to Daniel Webster and Lord Ashburton. These two gentle- 
men met in a spirit of fairness, calmly discussed the matter, and without the 
slightest friction reached an agreement, which was signed August *J, 1842, and 
confirmed by the Senate. 

CIVIL WAR IN RHODE ISLAND. 

Rhode Island had been gov- 
erned down to 1842 by the charter 
received from Charles II., in 1663. 
This charter jjermitted only the 
owners of a certain amount of prop- 
erty to vote. Dissatisfaction gradu- 
ally grew until 1842, when two 
political parties were formed in the 
little State, one favoring a new con- 
stitution and the other clinging to 
the old. The former carried the 
Legislature, after adopting a State 
constitution, and elected Thomas W. 
Dorr governor. Their opponents 
elected Samuel W. King, and both 
placed armed forces in the field. 
When civil war was imminent, the 
national government interfered and 
Dorr's forces were dispersed without (1-90-1862,) one partial term,"i8ii-i845. 

bloodshed. Dorr was arrested, and on his trial found guilty of treason. He 
was sentenced to imprisonment for life, but offered liberty on condition of tak- 
ing the oath of allegiance. He refused, and, in June, 1845. was unconditionally 
released. Meanwhile, the general dissatisfaction with the colonial charter led 
to the calling of a convention, which adopted a new constitution, that went 
into effect in May, 1843. 




THE ANTI-RENT WAR IN NEW YORK. 

It has been shown that when the Dutch were the owners of New York 



2.32 JACKSON, VAN BUREN, HARRISON, AND TYLER. 

State many of them took possession of immense tracts of lands, over which they 
ruled like the feudal lords in ancient England. These grants and privileges 
were inherited by their descendants and were not affected by the Revolution. 
Among the wealthiest patroons were the Van Rensselaers, whose estates included 
most of Albany and Rensselaer Counties. Stephen Van Rensselaer was easy- 
going and so wealtliy that he did not take the trouble to collect the rents due 
from his numerous tenants, who, at his death, in 1840, owed him nearly a quarter 
of a million of dollars. His heirs determined to collect this amount and set 
vigorous measures on foot to do so. The tenants resisted, furious fights took 
place, and the military were called out, but the tenants remained resolute in re- 
fusing to pay rent. The disturbances continued and were known as "The Anti- 
Rent War." The eastern towns of Rensselaer County and the Livingston manor 
of Columbia County were soon in a state of insurrection, and many outrages 
were committed. In Delaware County, while a deputy-sheriff was trying to 
perform his duty he was killed. The civil authorities were powerless to sup- 
press the revolt, and, in 1846, the governor declared the County of Delaware 
in a state of insurrection, and called out the military. They arrested the ring- 
leaders, antl the murderers of the deputy-sheriff were sentenced to imprisonment 
for life. Conciliatory measures followed, most of the patroon lands were sold 
to the tenants, and the great estates gradually passed out of existence. 

A SHOCKING ACCIDENT. 

A shocking accident occurred on the 28th of February, 1844. Mr, 
Upshur, secretary of State, Mr. Gilmer, secretary of the navy, and a number of 
distinguished ladies and gentlemen were taken on an excursion down the 
Potomac, by Commodore Stockton, on the steamer Princeton. For the enter- 
tainment of his guests, the commodore ordered the firing of an immense new 
gun that had been placed on board a short time before. It had been discharged 
several times, and, upon what was intended and indeed proved to be the last dis-. 
charge, it exploded, killing Mr. Upshui-, Mr. Gilmer, Commodore Kennon, 
Virgil Maxey, lately minister to The Hague, and several of the visitors, besides 
wounding seventeen sailors, some of whom died. Although Commodore 
Stockton lived many years afterward, he never fully recovered from the shock. 
The accident cast a gloom throughout the whole country. 

ADMISSION OF FLORIDA. 

One State, Florida, was admitted to the Union during Tyler's adminis- 
tration. Its early history has been given, it having been bought from Spain in 
1819. It was made a State in 1845. 

Texas now became a subject of national interest. Although the United 



ADMISSION OF TEXAS. 233 

States made claim to it as a part of the Louisiana purchase, the claim was 
abandoned in 1819, when Florida came into our possession. In 1821, a colony 
of Americans formed a settlement in Mexican territory, encouraged to do so 
bv the home government. Others emigrated thither, among whom were many 
restless adventurers and desperate men. By-and-by they began talking of 
wresting Texas from Mexico and transferring it to the United States. There 
is little doubt that in this design they received encouragement from many men 
holding high places in the United States. 

THE TEXAS KEVOLUTIOK. 

The ferment in Texas increased, and, on the 2d of March, 1836 a con- 
vention declared Texas independent. Santa Anna, president of the Mexican 
Republic, crossed the Rio Grande with a large force and advanced to San 
Antonio, where less than 200 Texans had taken refuge in a mission-house 
known as the Alamo, with their flag, consisting of a single star, floating defiantly 
above it In this body of fearless men were the eccentric Davy Crockett, 
formerly congressman from Tennessee ; the Bowie brothers, one of whom was 
the inventor of the Bowie knife ; Colonel Travis, and others as dauntless 
as they. They had several rifles apiece, and maintained a spirited defense, 
night and day, for ten days, under the incessant attacks of the Mexicans. 
Finally, when the brave band was reduced to less than a dozen, they surrenderd 
under the promise that their lives would be spared. Santa Anna caused the 

massacre of every one. . 

"Remember the Alamo! " became the war-cry of the Texans, and, in the 
following month, under the command of Sam Houston, they virtually destroyed 
the Mexican army and took Santa Anna prisoner. Houston was more merciful 
to him than he had been to the Alamo prisoners, and protected him from the 
vengeance of the soldiers. He was very glad to sign a treaty acknowledging the 

independence of Texas. 

The Mexican government, however, repudiated the action of its president, 
and a guerrilla warfare was waged by both sides for several years without any 
proo-ress being made in the conquest of the province. Texas organized itself 
into°an independent republic, elected Sam Houston president, and secured recog- 
nition from the United States, England, and several European governments. 
While making no organized efibrt to conquer Texas, Mexico insisted that the 
province was her own. 

ADMISSION OF TEXAS. 

One of the first steps of Texas, after declaring her independence , was to 
apply for admission into the Union. There was great opposition in the North 
because its admission would add an enormous slave area to our country. For the 



234 JACKSON, VAN BUREN, HARRISON, AND TYLER. 

same reason the South clamored that it should be made a State. Calhoun, who 
succeeded Upshur as secretary of State, in March, 1844, put forth every effort 
to bring Texas into the Union. Clay's opposition lost him the support of the 
South in his presidential aspirations. President Tyler, who favored its admis- 
sion, made an annexation treaty with Texas, but the Senate refused to ratify it. 
Then a joint resolution was introduced, and, after a hot discussion, was passed 
with the proviso that the incoming President might act, if he preferred, by Ij 
treaty. The resolution was adopted March 1, 1845, by the Senate, three days ' ' 
before the close of President Tyler's term. Calhoun instantly disjiatched a 
messenger to Texas with orders to travel with the utmost haste that the new 
State might be brought in under the resolution. President Tyler immediately 
signed the bill, and the "Lone-Star" State became a member of the Union. 
On the last day but one of the close of his terra he signed the bills for the 
admission of Florida and Iowa, but the latter was not formally admitted until 
the following year. 

THE COPPER MINES OF MICHIGAN. 

There were many events of a non-political nature, but of the highest 
importance, that occurred during Tyler's administration. Copper took its place 
as one of the great mineral productions of the United States in 1844. The 
Indians at last abandoned their claims to the country near Lake Superior, in 
northern Michigan, and the explorations that followed proved that the copper 
mines there are the richest in the world. Numerous companies were formed 
and copper-mining became the leading industry of that section. An interesting 
discovery was that many of the mines had been worked hundreds of years 
before by the Indians. 

The wonderful richness of the gold deposits in California, the vast mineral 
resources of Missouri and Tennessee, and the untold wealth of the petroleum 
bed under the surface of Pennsylvania were unsuspected. 

THE PRESIDENTIAL CONTEST OF 1844. 

The presidential election of 1844 hinged on the question of the proposed 
annexation of Texas. It has been stated that the Whigs nominated Henry Clay, 
who opposed annexation. Van Buren lost the Democratic reuomination through 
his opposition to annexation, and the Southern Democrats secured the candidacy 
of James K. Polk. The Abolitionists did not think Clay's opposition to annex- 
ation quite as earnest as it should be, and they placed William Birney in nomi- 
nation. As a result Clay lost the State of New York, and through that hia 
election to the presidency. The electoral vote was as follows : 

James K. Polk, of Tennessee, Democrat, 170; Henry Clay, of Kentucky, 
Whig, 105. For Vice-President, George M. Dallas, of Pennsylvania, Democrat, 



d\ 



THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 



2.'',5 



170 ; Theodore Frelingliiiysen, of New Jersey, Whig, 105. This secured the 
election of Polk and Dallas. James G. Birney and Thomas Morris, candidates 
of the Liberty party for President and Vice-President, received no electoral 
vote, but, as stated, caused the loss of the State of New York to Clay, thereby 
throwing enough electoral votes to Polk and Dallas to give them success. 

THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 

The convention which placed Polk in nomination was held in the city of 
Baltimore. A railway train was waiting to carry the news to Washington, and, 

as soon as the passengers could hurry on board, 
it steamed at the highest speed to the national 
capital. When the people left the cars an 
hour later they found, to 
their in- 
expressible 
amazement, 
newspaper 
extras for sale 
containing 
the news of 
Polk's nomi- 
nation. I n 
answer to 
their ques- 
tions they 
were told that 
it had been 
received from 
Baltimore by 

TELEGRAPH. 

This was 
by electric 




BHOP IN WHICH THE FIRST MORSE INSTRUMENT WAS CONSTRUCTED 
FOR EXHIBITION BEFORE CONGRESS. 



on the 29th of May, 1844, and was the first public message sent 
telegraph. It marked an era in the history of civilization. 

Investigation seems to establish that Professor Joseph Henry, of the Smith- 
sonian Institute, was the real inventor of the electro-magnetic telegraph, though 
that honor has been given and will continue to be given by most people to Pro- 
fessor Samuel F. B. Morse, whose relation to the telegraph was much the same 
as that of Fulton to the steamboat. He added to the ideas of those before him 
and first brought them into practical use. 

Professor Morse deserves all the credit he has received as one of the greatest 



236 



JACKSON, VAN BUREN, HARRISON, AND TYLER. 



of inventors. He studied painting when young and became an artist of consid- 
erable skill. As early as 1832 he conceived the idea of an electro-magnetic 
telegraph and began his experiments. The project absorbed all his energies 
until he became what is called in these days a " crank," which is often the name 
of one who gives all his thoughts and efforts to the development of a single 
project. He drifted away from his relatives, who looked upon him as a visionary 
dreamer, and when his ragged clothes and craving stomach demanded attention, 
he gave instruction in drawing to a few students who clung to him. 

Light gradually dawned upon Morse, and he continued his labors under 
discouragements that would have overcome almost any other man. He secured 
help from Alfred Vail, of Morristown, N. J., who invented the alphabetical 

characters and many es- 
sential features of the sys- 
tem, besides furnishing 
Morse with funds, with- 
out which his labors 
would have come to a 
standstill. There was not 
enough capital at com- 
mand to construct a line 
of telegraph, and Morse 
and his few friends 
haunted Congress with 
their plea for an appro 
priation. Ezra Cornell, 
founder of Cornell Uni- 
versity, gave assistance, 
and, finally, in the very closing days of the session of Congress in 1844, an ap- 
propriation of $30,000 was made to defray the expenses of a line between Bal- 
timore and Washington. . 

The invention, like most others of an important nature, was subjected to 
merciless ridicule. A wag hung a pair of muddy boots out of a window in 
Washington, with a placard announcing that they belonged to a man who had just 
arrived by telegraph ; another placed a package on the wires, and called to his 
friends to see it whisked away by lightning ; while many opjwsed the apparent 
experimenting with the electric fluid, which they believed would work all sorts 
of mischief. Nevertheless, the patient toilers kept at work, often stopped by 
accident, and in the face of all manner of opposition. The first line was laid 
underground, and, as has been shown, carried the news of Polk's nomination 
for the ]iresidency to Wasliington. 




THE SPEEDWELL IRON WOEKS, MOKRISTOWN, N. J. 

Here was forged the shaft for the Savannah, the first steamship which crossed the 
Atlantic. Here was manufactured the tires, axles and cranks of the first American 
locomotive. Shop in which Vail and Baxter constructed the first telegraph appa- 
ratus, invented by Morse, for exhibition before Congress. 



THE FIRST TELEGRAM. 237 

Professor Morse was in Washington, and the first message was dictated by 
Annie Ellsworth, March 28, 1844, and received by Alfred Vail, forty miles away 
in Baltimore. It consisted of the words, " What hath God wrought ? " and the 
telegram is now in the possession of the Connecticut Historical Society. It may 
be said that since then the earth has been girdled by telegraph lines, numbers 
of which pass under the ocean, uniting all nations and the uttermost extremities 
of the world. 

In the preceding pages we have done little more than give the results of the 
various presidential campaigns. The two leading political parties were the 
Whigs and the Democrats, and many of the elections were of absorbing interest, 
not only to the participants, but to the country at large. Several were distin- 
guished by features worthy of permanent record, since tliey throw valuable 
light upon the times, now forgotten, and were attended in many instances by far- 
reaching results. 

It seems proper, therefore, that a chapter should be devoted to the most 
important presidential campaigns preceding and including one of the most mem> 
orable — that of 1840 — often referred to as the "hard cider campaign." 




288 



1 




OLD GATES AT ST. AUGUSTINE, FLOBIDA. 



CHAPTEE XII. 

FANIOUS PRESIDENTIAL CAPvIPAIGNS PREVIOUS 

XO 1840. 

The Origin of the " Caucus "—The Election of 1792— The First Stormy Election— The Constitution 
Amended — Improvement of the Method of Nominating Presidential Candidates — The First Presiden- 
tial Convention — Convention in Baltimore in 1832 — Exciting Scenes — The Presidential Campaign of 
1820 — " Old Hickory " — Andrew Jackson's Popularity — Jackson Nominated — " Old Hickory " De- 
feated—The " Ltrg-Cabin " and "Hard-Cider " Campaign of 1840 — " Tippecanoe and Tyler Too " — 
Peculiar Feature of the Harrison Campaign. 

The presidential nominating convention is a modern institution. In the 
early days of the Republic a very different method was pursued in order to 
place the candidates for the highest office in the land before the people. 



THE ORIGIN OF THE " CAUCUS. 

In the first place, as to the origin of the " caucus." In the early part of 
the eighteenth century a number of caulkers connected with the shipping busi- 
ness in the North End of Boston held a meeting for consultation. That meet- 
ing was the germ of the political caucuses which have formed so prominent a 
feature of our government ever since its organization. 

The Constitution of our country was framed and signed in the month of 
September, 1787, by the convention sitting in Philadelphia, and then sent to 
the various Legislatures for their action. It could not become binding until 
ratified by nine States. On the 2d of July, 1788, Congress was notified that 
the necessary nine States had approved, and on the 13th of the following Sep- 

(239) 



240 FAMOUS PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS PREVIOUS TO 184.0. 

tember a day was appointed for the choice of electors for President. The day 
selected was the first Wednesday of January, 1789. The date for the begin- 
ning of proceedings under the new Constitution was postponed to the first Wed- 
nesday in March, which happened to fall on the 4th. In that way the 4tli of 
March became fixed as the date of the inauguration of each President, except 
when the date is on Sunday, when it becomes the 5th. 

Congress met at that time in the city of New York. It was not until the 
1st of April that a quorum for business appeared in the House of Representa- 
tives, and the Senate was organized on the 6th of that month. The electois 
who were to choose the President were selected by the various State Legislatures, 
each elector being entitled to cast two votes. The rule was that the candidate 
receiving the highest number became President, while the next highest vote 
elected the Vice-President. The objection to this method was that the two 
might belong to diflferent political parties, which very condition of things came 
about at the election of the second President, when John Adams was chosen to 
the highest office and Thomas Jefferson to the second. The former was a Fed- 
eralist, while Jefferson was a Republican, or, as he would have been called later, 
a Democrat. Had Adams died while in ofiice, the policy of his administration 
would have been changed. 

There could be no doubt as to the first choice. While Washington lived 
and was willing thus to serve his country, what other name could be considered ? 
So, when the electoral vote was counted on the 6th of April, 1789, every vote 
of the ten States which took part in the election was cast for him. He received 
69 (all) ; John Adams, 34 ; John Jay, 9 ; R. H. Harrison, 6 ; John Rutledge, 
6 ; John Hancock, 4 ; George Clinton, 3 ; Samuel Huntingdon, 2 ; John Mil- 
ton, 2 ; James Armstrong, Benjamin Lincoln, and Edward Telfair, 1 each. 

THE ELECTION OF 1792. 

At the next election, in 1792, the result was : Washington, 132 (all) votes ; 
John Adams, 77 ; George Clinton, 50 ; Thomas Jefferson, 4 ; Aaron Burr, 1 ; 
vacancies, 3. It would have been the same at the third election had tlie illus- 
trious Father of his Country consented to be a candidate ; but he was growing 
feeble, and had already sacrificed so much for his country, that his yearning for 
the quiet, restful life at Mount Vernon could not be denied him. So he retired, 
and, less than three years later, passed from earth. 

THE FIRST STORMY ELECTION. 

What may be looked upon as the fii'st stormy election of a President took 
place in 1800. When the electoral votes came to be counted, they were found 
to be distributed as follows: Thomas Jefferson, 73; Aaron Burr, 73; John 



^:he first stormy election. 



241 



Adams, 65 ; Charles C. Pinckney, 64 ; John Jay, 1. Jefferson and Burr being 
tied, the election was thrown into the House of Representatives, where the con- 
test became a memorable one. The House met on the 11th of February, 1801, 
to decide the question. On the first ballot, Jefferson had eight States and Burr 
six, while Maryland and Vermont were equally divided. Here was another 
tie. 

Meanwhile, one of the most terrific snowstorms ever known swept over 




A TYPICAL VIBGINIA COURT-HOUSE. 



Washington. Mr. Nicholson, of Maryland, was seriously ill in bed, and yet, if 
he did not vote, his State would be g,iven to Burr, who would be elected Presi- 
dent. Nicholson showed that he had the " courage of his convictions " by allow- 
ing himself to be bundled up and carried through the blizzard to one of the 
committee rooms, where his wife stayed by his side day and night. On each 
ballot the box was brought to his bedside, and he did not miss one. The House 
remained in continuous session until thirty-five ballots had been cast without 
any change. 

It was clear by that time that Burr could not be elected, for the columns 
of Jefferson were as immovable as a stone wall. The break, when it came, must 



16 



242 FAMOUS PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS PREVIOUS TO 1840. 

be in the ranks of Burr. On the thirty-sixth ballot, the Federalists of Mary- 
land, Delaware, and South Carolina voted blank, and the Federalist of Vermont 
stayed away. This gave the friends of Jefferson their opportunity, and, for- 
tunately for the country, Thomas Jefferson was elected instead of the miscreant 
Burr. 

THE CONSTITUTION AMENDED. 

As a result of this noted contest, the Constitution was so amended that each 
elector voted for a President and a Vice-President, instead of for two candidates 
for President. It was a needed improvement, since it insured that both should 
belong to the same political party. 

During the first term of Washington, the country was divided into two 
powerful political parties. Men who, like Washington, Hamilton, and others, 
believed in a strong central government, with only such political power as was 
absolutely necessary distributed among the various States, were Federalists. 
Those who insisted upon the greatest possible power for the States, yielding 
nothing to Congress beyond what was distinctly specified in the Constitution, 
were Republicans, of whom Thomas Jefferson was the foremost leader. Other 
points of difference developed as the years passed, but the main distinction was 
as given. After the election of John Adams, the Federalist party gradually 
dwindled, and in the war of 1812 its unpatriotic coui^e fatally weakened the 
organization. 

THE COUNTEY DIVIDED IN PARTIES. 

The Republican party took the name of Democratic-Republican, which is 
its official title to-day. During Monroe's administration, when almost the last 
vestige of Federalist vanished, their opponents gradually acquired the name of 
Democrats, by which they are now known. After a time, the Federalists were 
succeeded by the Whigs, who held well together until the quarrel over the 
admission of Kansas and the question of slavery split the party into frag- 
ments. From these, including Know Nothings, Abolitionists, Free Soilers, and 
Northern Democrats, was builded, in 1856, the present Republican party, whose 
foundation stone was opposition to the extension of slavery. Many minor 
parties have sprung into ephemeral life from time to time, but the Democrats 
and Republicans will undoubtedly be the two great political organizations for 
many years to come, as they have been for so many years past. 

IMPROVEMENT OF THE METHOD OF NOMINATING PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES. 

It will be noted that the old-fashioned method of nominating presidential H 
candidates was clumsy and frequently unfair. Candidates sometimes announced 
themselves for offices within the gift of the people ; but if that practice had con- 
tinued to modern times, the number of candidates thus appealing for the suffrages 



dl 



THE FIRST PRESIDENTIAL CONVENTION. 



243 



of their fellow-citizens might have threatened to equal the number of voters 
themselves. The more common plan was for the party leaders to hold private 
or informal caucuses. The next method was for the legislative caucus to name 
the man. The unfairness of this system was that it shut out from representation 
those whose districts had none of the opposite political party in the Legislature. 
To adjust the matter, the caucus rule was so modified as to admit delegates spe- 
cially sent up from the districts that were not represented in the Legislature. 
This, it will be seen, was an important step in the direction of the present system, 
which makes a nominating convention consist of delegates from every part of a 
State, chosen for the sole purpose of making nominations. 




THE WHITE HOUSE AT WASHINGTON, D. C. 

The perfected method appeared in New Jersey as early as 1812, in Penn- 
sylvania in 1817, and in New York in 1825. There was no clearly defined plan 
followed in making the presidential nominations for 1824, and four years later 
the legislative caucus system was almost universally followed. After that, the 
system which had been applied in various States was applied to national matters. 



THE FIRST PRESIDENTIAL CONVENTION". 

In the year 1826, William Morgan, a worthless character, living in Bata- 
via, New York, attempted to expose the secrets of the order of Free Masons, of 
which he had become a member. While he was engaged in printing his book, 



244 FAMOUS PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS PREVIOUS TO 18Ifi. 

he disappeared and was never afterward seen. The Masons were accused of 
making way with him, and a wave of opposition swept over the country which 
closed many lodges and seemed for a time to threaten the extinction of the 
order. An anti-Masonic party was formed and became strong enough to carry 
the election in several States. Not only that, but in September, 1831, the anti- 
Masons held a National nominating convention in Baltimore and put forward 
William Wirt, former attorney-general of the United States, as their nominee 
for the Presidency, with Amos Ellmaker, candidate for the Vice-Presidency. 
The ticket received seven electoral votes. The noteworthy fact about this 
almost forgotten matter is that the convention was the first presidential one held 
in this country. 

CONVENTION IN BALTIMORE IN 1832. 

The system was now fairly launched, for in December of the same year 
the National Republicans met in convention in Baltimore and nominated Henry 
Clay, and in May, 1832, Martin Van Buren was nominated by a Democratic 
convention. He was renominated at the same place and in the same manner in 
1835, but the Whigs did not imitate their opponents. lu 1840, however, the 
system was adopted by both parties, and has been followed ever since. 

Our whole country seethes with excitement from the hour when the first 
candidate is hinted at until his nomination is made, followed by his election or 
defeat a few months later. Some persons see a grave peril in this periodic con- 
vulsion, which shakes the United States like an earthquake, but it seems after 
all to be a sort of political thunderstorm which purifies the air and clarifies the 
ideas that otherwise would become sodden or morbid. It is essentially Ameri- 
can, and our people's universal love of fair play leads them to accept the ver- 
dict at the jiolls with j^hilosophy and good nature. 

And yet there have been many exciting scenes at the nominating conven- 
tions of the past, as there doubtless will be in many that are yet to come. Com- 
ing down to later times, how often has it proved that the most astute politicians 
were all at sea in their calculations. The proverbial " dark horse " has become 
a potent factor whom it is not safe to forget in making up political probabilities. 

THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1820. 

Probably the most tranquil presidential campaign of the nineteenth cen- 
tury was that of 1820, when James Monroe was elected for the second time. 
He was virtually the only candidate before the country for the exalted office. 
When the electoral college met, the astounding fact was revealed that he had 
every vote — the first time such a thing had occurred since Washington's elec- 
tion. 

But there was one elector who had the courage to do that which was never 



ANjyREW JACKSON'S POPULARITY. 245 

done before and has never been done since : he voted contrary to his instruc- 
tions and in opposition to the ticket on which he was elected. Blumer, of New 
Hampshire, explained that, as he viewed it, no President had the right to share 
the honor of a unanimous election with Washington, and, though an ardent 
friend of Monroe, he deliberately cast his one vote for Adams, in order to pre- 
serve Washington's honor distinct. His motive was appreciated, and Blumer 
was applauded for the act, Monroe himself being pleased with it. 

"old hickoey." 

It is hardly necessary to repeat that this incident has not been duplicated 
since that day. Andrew Jackson, " Old Hickory," was probably the most pop- 
ular man in the country when the time came for naming the successor of Mon- 
roe. It may sound strange, but it is a fact, that when the project of running 
him for the presidency was first mentioned to Jackson, he was displeased. Iv 
had never entered his head to covet that exalted office. 

"Don't think of it," he said; "I haven't the first qualification; lama 
rough, plain man, fitted perhaps to lead soldiers and fight the enemies of our 
country, but as for the presidency, the idea is too absurd to be held." 

But what American cannot be convinced that he is pre-eminently fitted for 
the office ? It did not take long for the ambition to be kindled in the breast 
of the doughty hero. His friends flattered him into the conviction that he was 
the man of all others to assume the duties, and the " bee buzzed " as loudly in 
Jackson's bonnet as it ever has in that of any of his successors. 

ANDREW Jackson's popularity. 
It cannot be denied that " Old Hickory " was a great man, and though he 
was deficient in education, lacking in statesmanship, and obstinate to the last 
degree, he was the possessor of those rugged virtues which invariably command 
respect. He was honest, clean in his private life, a stanch friend, an unre- 
lenting enemy, and an intense patriot — one who was ready to risk his life at 
any hour for his country. In addition, he never knew the meaning of per- 
sonal fear. No braver person ever lived. When the sheriff in a court-room 
was afraid to attempt to arrest a notorious desperado, Jackson leaped over the 
chairs, seized the ruffian by the throat, hurled him to the floor, and cowed him 
into submission. When a piece of treachery was discovered on a Kentucky 
racecourse, Jackson faced a mob of a thousand infuriated men, ruled off the 
dishonest official, and carried his point. He challenged the most noted duelist 
of the southwest, because he dared to cast a slur upon Jackson's wife. It mat- 
tered not that the scoundrel had never failed to kill his man, and that all of 
Jackson's friends warned him that it was certain death to meet the dead-shot 



246 FAMOUS PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS PREVIOUS TO I840. 

At the exchange of shots, Jackson was frightfully wounded, but he stood as 
rigid as iron, and sent a bullet through the body of his enemy, whom he did 
not let know he was himself wounded until the other breathed his last. 

Above all, had not "Old Hickory" won the battle of New Orleans, the most 
brilliant victory of the War of 1812 ? Did not he and his unerring riflemen 
from the backwoods of Tennessee and Kentucky spread consternation, death, 
and defeat among the red-coated veterans of Waterloo? No wonder that the 
anniversary of that glorious battle is still celebrated in every part of the 
country, and no wonder, too, that the American people demanded that the hero 
of all these achievements should be rewarded with the highest office in the gift 
of his countrymen. 

JACKSON NOMINATED. 

Jackson, having "placed himself in the hands of his friends," threw 
himself into the struggle with all the unquenchable ardor of his nature. On 
July 22, 1822, the Legislature of Tennessee was first in the field by placing him 
in nomination. On the 22d of February, 1824, a Federalist convention at Har- 
risburg, Pa., nominated him, and on the 4th of March following a Republican 
convention did the same. It would seem that he was now fairly before the 
country, but the regular Democratic nominee, that is, the one named by the 
congressional caucus, was William H. Crawford, of Georgia. The remaining 
candidates were John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay, and all of them belonged 
to the Republican party, which had retained the presidency since 1800. Adams 
and Clay were what was termed loose constructionists, while Jackson and Craw- 
ford were strict constructionists. 

"old hickory" defeated. 

The canvass was a somewhat jumbled one, in which each candidate had his 
ardent partisans and supporters. The contest was carried out with vigor and 
the usual abuse, personalities, and vituperation until the polls were closed. 
Then when the returns came to be made up it was found that Jackson had 
received 99 electoral votes, Adams 84, Crawford 41, and Clay 37. "Old 
Hickory" was well ahead, but his strength was not sufficient to make him Presi- 
dent, even though on the popular vote he led Adams by more than 50,000. 
Consequently the election went to the House of Representatives, where the 
supporters of Clay combined with those of Adams and made him President. 
Thus came the singular result that the man who had the largest popular and 
electoral vote was defeated. 

It was a keen disappointment to Jackson and his friends. The great Sena- 
tor Benton, of Missouri, one of the warmest supporters of "Old Hickory," 
angrily declared that the House was deliberately defying the will of the people 



.^1 



THE "LOG-CABIN AND HARD-CIDER" CAMPAIGN. 



247 



by placing a minority candidate in the chair. The senator's position, however, 
was untenable, and so it was that John Quincy Adams became the sixth Presi- 
dent of our country. 

Jackson's triumph. 

But the triumph of " Old Hickory " was only postponed. His defeat was 
looked upon by the majority of men as a deliberate piece of trickery, and they 
" lay low " for the next opportunity to square matters. No fear of a second 
chance being presented to their opponents. Jackson was launched into the can- 
vass of 1828 like a cyclone, and when the returns were made up he had 178 
electoral votes to 83 for Adams — a vote which lifted him safely over the edge of 
a plurality and seated him firmly in the White House. 

It is not our province to treat of the administration of Andrew Jackson, for 




OLD SPANISH HOUSE ON BOURBON STREET, NEW ORLEANS. 



that belongs to history, but the hold which that remarkable man maintained 
upon the affections of the people was emphasized when, in 1832, he was re- 
elected by an electoral vote of 219 to 49 for Clay, 11 for Floyd, and 7 for Wirt. 
Despite the popular prejudice against a third term, there is little doubt that 
Jackson would have been successful had he chosen again to be a candidate. 
He proved his strength by selecting his successor, Martin Van Buren. 

THE " LOG-CABIN AND HARD-CIDER " CAMPAIGN OF 1840. 

The next notable presidential battle was the " log-cabin and hard-cider *' 
campaign of 1840, the like of which was never before seen in this country. 
General William Henry Harrison had been defeated by Van Buren in 1836, 
but on the 4th of December, 1839, the National Whig Convention, which met 



248 FAMOUS PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS PREVIOUS TO 18^0. 

at Harrisburg to decide the claims of rival candidates, 2:>laced Harrison in 
nomination, while the Democrats again nominated Van Buren. 

General Harrison lived at North Bend, Ohio, in a house which consisted 
of a log-cabin, built many years before by a pioneer, and was afterwai'd covered 
with clapboards. The visitors to the house praised the republican simplicity of 
the old soldier, the hero of Tippecanoe, and the j^rincij^al campaign biography 
said that his table, instead of being supplied with costly wines, was furnished 
with an abundance of the best cider. 

Tlie canvass had hardly opened, when the Baltimore Republican slurred 
General Harrison by remarking that, if some one would pension him with a 




THE MARIGNY HOUSE, NEW ORLEANS. 
(Where Louis Philippe stopped in 1798.) 

few hundred dollars and give him a barrel of hard cider, he would sit down in 
his log-cabin and be content for the rest of his life. That sneer furnished the 
keynote of the campaign. Hard cider became almost the sole beverage of the 
"Whigs throughout the country. In every city, town and village, and at the 
cross-roads, were erected log-cabins, while the amount of hard cider drank 
would have floated the American navy. The nights were rent with the shouts 
of "Tippecanoe and Tyler too," and scores of campaign songs were sung by 
tens of thousands of exultant, even if not always musical, voices. We recall 
that one of the most popular songs began : 

" Oh, where, tell me where, was the log-cahin made? 
'Twas made by the boys that wield the plough and the spade." 

There was no end to the songs, which were set to the most popular airs and 



PECULIAR FEATURE OF THE HARRISON CAMPAIGN. 249 

sung over and over again. You would hear them in the middle of the night 
on some distant mountain-top, where the twinkling camp-fire showed that a 
party of Whigs were drinking hard cider and whooping it up for Harrison; 
some singer with a strong, pleasing voice would start one of the songs from the 
platform, at the close of the orator's appeal, and hardly had liis lips parted, 
when the thousands of Whigs, old and young, and including wives and daughters, 
would join in the words, while the enthusiasm quickly grew to a white heat. 
The horsemen riding home late at night awoke the echoes among the woods 
and hills with their musical praises of "Old Tippecanoe." The story is told that 
in one of the backwoods districts of Ohio, after the preacher had announced 
the hymn, the leader of the singing, a staid old deacon, struck in with a Har- 
rison campaign song, in which the whole congregation, after the first moment's 
shock, heartily joined, while the aghast preacher had all he could do to restrain 
himself from "coming in on the chorus." There was some truth in the declara- 
tion of a disgusted Democrat that, from the opening of the canvass, the whole 
Whig population of the United States went upon a colossal spree on hard cider, 
which continued witliout intermission until Harrison was installed in the White 
House. 

And what did November tell ? The electoral vote cast for Martin Van 
Buren, 60; for General Harrison, 234. No wonder that the supply of hard 
cider was almost exhausted within the next three days. 

PECULIAR FEATURE OF THE HARRISON CAMPAIGN. 

As we have noted, the method of nominating presidential candidates by 
means of popular conventions was fully established in 1840, and has continued 
uninterruptedly ever since. One peculiar feature marked the Harrison cam- 
paign of 1840. The convention which nominated Martin Van Buren met in 
Baltimore in May of that year. On the same day, the young Whigs of the 
country held a mass-meeting in Baltimore, at which fully twenty thousand 
persons were present. They came from every part of the Union, Massachusetts 
sending fully a thousand. When the adjournment took place, it was to meet 
again in Washington at the inauguration of Harrison. The railway was then 
coming into general use, and this greatly favored the assembling of mass-con- 
ventions. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



ADIvIINISTRATION OK POIvK, 1845—1849. 



James K. Polk— T^e War with Mexico— 1h(i First Conflict— Battle of Resaca de la Palma— Vigorous 
Action of the United States Government — General Scott's Plan of Campaign — Capture of Monterey 
— An Armistice — Capture of Saltillo — Of Victoria — Of Tampico — General Kearny's Capture of 
Santa Fe — Conquest of California — Wonderful March of Colonel Doniphan — Battle of Buena Vista 
—General Scott's March Toward the City of Mexico— Capture of Vera Cruz — American Victory at 
Cerro Gordo— Five American Victories in One Day — Santa Anna — Conquest of Mexico Completed 
—Terms of the Treaty of Peace— The New Territory Gained— The Slavery Dispute— The Wilmot 
Proviso — "Fifty- Four Forty or Fight" — Adjustment of the Oregon Boundary — Admission of Iowa 
and Wisconsin— Tiie Smithsonian Institute— Discovery of Gold m California — The Mormons — The 
Presidential Election of 1848. 



JAMES 




JAMES K. POLK. 

(1793-1819.) One term, 184o-1849. 



and corresponds to the Military Academy at West Point. 



. POLK. 

James K. Polk, eleventh Presi- 
dent, was born in Mecklenburg 
County, North Carolina, November 
2, 1795, and died June 15, 1849. 
His father removed to Tennessee 
when the son was quite young, and 
lie therefore became identified with 
that State. He studied law, was a 
leaduig politician, and was elected to 
Congrtiss in 1825, serving in that 
body for fourteen years. He was 
elected governor of Tennessee in 
1839, his next advancement being to 
the presidency of the United States. 

The President made George 
Bancroft, the distinguished historian, 
his secretary of the navy. It was he 
who laid the foundation of the United 
States Naval Academy at Annapolis, 
which was opened October 10, 1845. 
It is under the immediate care and 
supervision of the navy department 



(251) 



2^2 ADMINISTRATION OF POLK. 

Everybody knew that the admission of Texas meant war with Mexico fo. 
that country would never yield, until compelled to do so, the province that had 
rebelled against her rule and whose independence she had persiltenly r us d 
to recognize. Texas was unable to withstand the Mexican imy, and her Tu- 
thonties urged the United States to send a force for her protec' on. General 
Zachary Taylor, who was in camp in western Louisiana, was ordered to adv c 
into and occupy Texan territory. 'tuvance 

Mexico had always insisted that the Nueces River was her western boun- 
dary, while Texas maintained that the Rio Grande was the dividing line The 
dispute, therefore was really over the. tract of land between the two fivers' Our 
country proposed to settle the question by arbitration, but Mexico would n 
onsent, claiming that the section (known a. Coahuila) had never beenTn 
revol agains her authority, while Texas declared that it was a part of itself 
and Its Legislature so decided December 19, 1836 

IM^^Tf ^'^!'' Tlf'^^y ' ^^-P ^t'Corpus Christi in the latter part of 

Januaiy, to the Rio Grande to meet the Mexicans who were preparing to invLde 
the disputed territory. Taylor ^tablished a depot of provisions at pLt Isabel 
on the Gulf, and, upon reaching the Rio Grande, hastily built Fort Brown 
opposite the Mexican town of Matamoras. 

_ Some time later the Mexican forces reached Matamoras, and General 
Arista on the 26th of April notified Taylor that hostilities had be-un To 
emphasize his declaration, Captain Thornton with a company of dragoons was 
attacked the same day, and, after the loss of sixteen men in killed and wounded 
was compelled to surrender to a much superior force. This was the first enga^el 
ment of the war and was fought on ground claimed by both countries 



BATTLE OF PALO ALTO. 



_ The Mexicans acted vigorously and soon placed Taylor's lines of communi- 
cation in such danger that he hurried to Point Isabel to prevent its falling 
into the hands of the enemy. He left Major Brown with 300 men in charge 
i- iT ."''"• ^^' Mexicans were exultant, believing Taylor had been 
trightened out of the country. But that valiant officer paused at Point Isabel 
only long enough to make its position secure, when he marched rapidly toward 

fir fZ";/'^'^""^ ^*'*' '^^*^' ^'^ '^'^ ^■°^^' ^'^ f«"nd the way disputed by 
tully 6,000 Mexicans, who were three times as numerous as his own army 
Attacking tlie enemy with great spirit, he routed them with the loss of a hun- 
dred men, his own loss being four killed and forty wounded. 

Resuming his march toward Fort Brown, "Taylor had reached a point 
within three miles of it, when he was brought face to face with a much larger 




4\ 



BATTLE OF RESACA DE LA PALIWA 

"aptain May loapod his stcci] ovei- the parappN. followed by thos ■ of his nun \vhose horses could rto a 

like fi'iit. and was aiPo"s the i;iinnors tie next m iment. salierins Ihem riulit and h-f[. Ceiiei-al I.a 

Ve;;! r.nd a iMindn d of ! is nn n were made prisoners and home 1 at-U to the An i rii im l-.nes. 



WAR DECLARED BY CONGRESS. 



253 



force at Eesaca cle la Palma. The battle was a severe one, and for a long time 
was in doubt ; but the tide was turned by a dashing charge of Captain May 
with his dragoons. Despite a destructive fire of grapeshot, the horsemen gal- 
loped over the Mexican batteries, cut down the gunners, and captured the com- 
manding officer. Tavlor then pushed on to Fort Brown and found it safe. 




BOBEKT E. Ii£J£ IN ONE OF THE BATTLES Oi' THIU MEXICAN ■WAK. 
"Always to be found where the fighting was the fiercest." 

though it had been under an almost continuous bombardment, in which Majoi 
Brown, the commandant, was killed. 



WAR DECLARED BY CONGRESS. 

News of these battles was carried north by carrier pigeons and telegraph. 



254 ADMINISTRATION OF POLK. 

and the war spirit of the country was roused. Congress on the llth of 
May declared that war existed by the act of the Mexican government, and 
110,000,000 was placed at the disposal of the President, who was authorized 
to accept 50,000 volunteers. The call for them was answered by 300,000, 
who were eager to serve in the war. 

GENERAL SCOTT's PLAN OF CAMPAIGTiT. ' 

General Scott, as head of the army, formed a careful plan of campaign for 
the conquest of Mexico. Of the three divisions, General Kearny, with the 
army of the west, was to cross the E-ocky Mountains and conquer the northern 
Mexican provinces; General Scott himself, with the army of the centre, was to 
advance from the coast into the intei-ior of the country, making the city of 
Mexico, the capital of the republic, his objective point; while General Taylor, 
witli the army of occupation, was to seize and hold the Rio G)-ande country. 
The work of mustering in the troops was intrusted to General Wool, who, some 
time later, established himself at San Antonio, and sent many soldiers to the 
different commands. 

CAPTURE OF MONTERET. 

Within less than two weeks after his victory at Resaca de la Raima, Taylor 
crossed over from Fort Brown and captured Matamoras. Then he turned up 
the right bank of the Rio Grande and marched into the interior. The Mexi- 
cans retreated to the fortified town of Monterey, where they were so powerful 
that Taylor waited for reinforcements before attacking them. His forces 
amounted to 6,600 by the latter part of August, and he then advanced against 
Monterey, which was defended by a garrison of 10,000 men. 

The city was invested on the 10th of September. Two days sufficed for 
General Worth to capture the fortified works in the rear of the town, and on 
the next day the remaining defenses on that side were carried by storm. At 
daylight, on the 23d, the city in front was captured by assault. The Mexicans 
maintained a vicious defense from their adobe houses, but the Americans, 
charging through the streets, battered in the doors, chased the defenders from 
room to room and over the housetops until they flung down their arms and 
shouted for mercy. The commander was allowed to evacuate the city, and fell 
back toward the national capital. 

OTHER VICTORIES. 

Taylor was about to resume his advance when the enemy asked for an 
armistice, saying the authorities wished to negotiate for peace. Taylor agreed 
to an armistice of eight weeks, but the proposal was a trick of the enemy, who 
spent every hour of the respite in making preparations to resist the Americans' 



J 



V0N<4UEiiT OF CALIFORNIA. 255 

advance. Santa Anna, who was undergoing one of his periodical banishments, 
was called back and given the presidency. When the armistice granted by 
Taylor expired, the Mexicans had an army of 20,000 in the field, and, under 
orders from Washington, the American commander moved forward. The first 
town captured was Saltillo, seventy miles southwest of Monterey. It was taken 
by General Worth, with the advance, on the 15th of November, 1846. In the 
following month Victoria, in the province of Tamaulipas, was captured by 
General Butler, who, advancing from Monterey, united with Patterson at this 
place. Their intention was to move upon Tampico, on the coast, but they 
learned that it had surrendered to Captain Conner, commander of an American 
squadron. Meanwhile, General Wool, marching from San Antonio, arrived 
within supporting distance of Monterey. Such was the situation when General 
Scott reached the army and took command. 

GENERAL KEARNY's OPERATIONS. 

General Kearny, in command of the army of the west, left Fort Leaven- 
worth, in June, 1846, on the way to conquer New Mexico and California. He 
had a long and laborious march before him, but he reached Santa Fe on the 
18th of August, and it was easily captured and garrisoned. New Mexico was 
powerless, and the whole province surrendered. Then Kearny, at the head of 
400 dragoons, set out for the Pacific coast, but he had not gotten far on the road 
when he met a messenger who informed him that California had been conquered 
by Colonel John C. Fremont, acting in conjunction with Commodores Sloat and 
Stockton. Kearny sent most of his men back to Santa Fe and pushed for the 
Pacific coast, with a hundred dragoons. He arrived in November, and joined 
Fremont and Stockton. 

CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA. 

Fremont acquired the name of the " Pathfinder "' because of his exploring 
expeditions in the far West. He explored a portion of the Rocky Mountains in 
1842, and, in the following two years, conducted an expedition with much skill 
and success through the regions of Utah, the basin of the Columbia, and the 
passes of the Sierra Nevada. He was in charge of a third expedition in 1846, 
and was in California when the Mexican war broke out. He received the dis- 
patches as if they were news to him, but there is good reason to believe that the 
government had sent him thither, in order that he might be on the ground and 
do the very work he did. He urged the pioneers to declare their independence. 
They ardently did so, raised the " Black Bear Flag," and rathered around Fre- 
mont, who continually defeated the superior forces of Mexicans. 

The town of Monterey, eighty miles south of San Francisco, was captured 
by Commodore Sloat with an American squadron, and San Diego was taken 



256 ADMINISTRATION OF POLK. 

soon afterward by Commodore Stockton, in command of the Pacific squadron ; 
learning which, Fremont raised the Anlerican flag in the place of tliat of Cali- 
fornia, and, joining the naval commanders, advanced upon Los Angeles, which 
submitted without resistance. In a short time the immense province of Cali- 
fornia was conquered by what may be called a handful of Americans. 

THE WONDERFUL MARCH OF COLONEL DONIPHAN. 

Colonel Alexander W. Doniphan had been left at Santa Fe with his small 
force of dragoons. At the head of 700 men, he performed one of the most re- 
markable exploits of the war. Riding directly through the enemy's country 
for nearly a thousand miles, he reached the Rio Grande on Christmas day 
and won a battle ; he then crossed the river and captured El Paso, and, head- 
ing for Chihuahua, was met by a Mexican force on the banks of Sacramento 
Creek. They outnumbered Doniphan's force four to one, and displayed the 
black flag, as notice that no quarter would be given. The Americans lay flat 
on the ground, and the first volleys passed harmlessly over their heads. The 
Mexicans made the mistake of believing they had been decimated by the dis- 
charge, and charged upon what they supposed were the few survivors. They 
were received with a withering volley, and assailed with such fierceness by the 
Americans that they were utterly routed. Chihuahua thus fell into the pos- 
session of Colonel Doniphan, but, since the term of the enlistment of his men 
had expired, he could advance no further. He then conducted them to New 
Orleans, where they were mustered out of service. They had marched a dis- 
tance of 5,000 miles, won several victories, suffered not a single defeat, and 
were back again in their homes all within a year. 

General Scott had landed on the coast for the purpose of marching into 
the interior to the national capital. In order to make his advance resistless, he 
withdrew the larger part of Taylor's army and united it with his own. Taylor 
felt he was used unjustly, for both he and Wool were threatened by Santa 
Anna at the head of 20,000, men, but bluff" " Old Rough and Ready " made 
no protest and grimly prepared for the danger. The greatest number of troops 
he could concentrate at Saltillo was about 6,000, and, after placing garrisons 
there and at Monterey, he had only 4,800 remaining, but, undismayed, he 
marched out to meet Santa Anna. Four miles away, he reached the favorable 
battle ground of Buena Vista, posted his men, and awaited attack. 

The Mexican commander was so confiden<^ of overwhelming the Americans 
that, in his message to Taylor, he assured him he would see that he was person- 
ally well treated after his surrender. General Taylor sent word that he declined 
to obey the summons, and the messenger who carried the message to Santa 
Anna added the significant words : " General Taylor never surrenders." 



BATTLE OF BUENA VISTA. 



257 



The American army was placed at the upper end of a long and narrow 
pass in the mountains. It was flanked on one side by high clifi's and on the 
other by impassable ravines, which position compelled the enemy to attack him 
in front. 

BATTLE OF BUENA VISTA. 

The battle opened early on the morning of February 23d, with the Mexi- 
cans swarming through the gorges and over the hills from San Luis Potosi. 
The first assault was against the American right, but it was beaten back by the 
Illinois troops ; the next was against the centre, but it was repelled by Captain 
Washington's artillery; and then the 
left flank was vehemently assailed. 
A mistaken order caused an Indiana 
regiment to give way, and for a time 
the whole army was in danger ; but 
the Mississippians and Kentuckians 
gallantly flung themselves into the 
breach, the Indiana and Illinois troops 
rallied, and the Mexicans were driven 
tumultuously back. In this brilliant 
exploit Colonel Jefferson Davis, with 



his Mississijjj^i 
prominent part. 



regiment, played a 




GENEEAL WINFIELD SCOTT. 



"a little more grape, captain 

BRAGG." 

The next charge was upon Cap- 
tain Bragg's battery, but that officer, 
in obedience to General Taylor's fa- 
mous request, "A little more grape, 
Captain Bragg," scattered the Mex- 
ican lancers in every direction. The 
success was followed up by a cavalry charge, which completed the discomfiture 
of the enemy, who fled with the loss of 2,000 men. 

Buena Vista was a superb victory for the Americans, but it cost them dear. 
The killed, wounded, and missing numbered nearly 800. Among the killed 
was Colonel Henry Clay, son of the Kentucky orator and statesman. The 
battle completed the work of General Taylor, who soon afterward returned to 
the United States. The glory he had won made him President less than two 
two years later. 

Returning once more to General Scott, he entered upon the last campaign, 

17 



258 ADMINISTRATION OF POLK. 

March 9, 1847. Old army officers of to-day contrast the admirable manner in 
which he did his preliminary work with the mismanagement in the Spanish- 
American War of 1898. luijjatience was expressed at his tardiness in getting 
his troops ready on the transjDorts at New York. To all such complaints, the 
grim old soldier replied that he would embark when everything was ready and 
not a single hour before. As a consequence, his men lauded at Vera Cruz in 
the best condition, there was not the slightest accident, and every soldier when 
he stepped ashore had three days' rations in his knapsack. Twelve thousand 
men were landed, and in three days the investment of Vera Cruz was complete. 
Then a Mexican train was captured and the troops had provisions in abundance. 

CAPTURE OF VERA CRUZ. 

The city having refused to surrender, the bombardment opened on the 
morning of March 22d. The water-side of Vera Cruz was defended by the 
castle of San Juan d'Ulloa, built a century and a half before by Spain at enor- 
mous cost. Commodore Conner assisted throughout the foui' days that the can- 
nonade lasted. The success of the bombardment made the Americans confident 
of capturing the castle by assault, and they were preparing to do so when the 
authorities proposed satisfactory terms of surrender, which took place March 
29th. 

The dh-ect march upon the capital now began, with General Twiggs in com- 
mand of the advance. The road steadily rises from the coast and abounds in 
passes and mountains, which offer the best kind of natural fortifications. When 
Twiggs reached one of these passes, named Cerro Gordo, he found that Santa 
Anna had taken possession of it with 15,000 troops. The whole American 
army numbered only 9,000, and it looked as if they were halted in front of an 
impregnable position, but it must be captured or the whole campaign would 
have to be abandoned. 

BATTLE OF CERRO GORDO. 

There was no hesitation on the part of our troops, who, under the lead of 
the bravest and most skillful of officers, attacked with their usual energy and 
daring. The Mexicans made the best defense possible, but within a few hours 
they abandoned every position and were driven in headlong confusion from the 
field. They lost 3,000 prisoners, among whom were five generals, while the 
escape of Santa Anna was so narrow that he left his cork leg behind. 

The American army pressed on to Jalapa, which made no resistance, and 
furnished a large amount of supplies, and Puebla, a city of 80,000 inhabitants, 
was occupied on the 15th of May. There the ground was high and the air cool 
and salubrious. The men were exhausted from their arduous campaign, and 
Scott decided to give them a good rest, so as to be fully prepared for the final 



THE MARCH UPON THE CAPITAL. 



2od 



struggle. Besides it was necessary to receive reinforcements before venturing 
further, Santa Anna, realizing that the critical period of the struggle was at 
hand, put forth every energy to collect an army to beat back the invaders. 




BATTLE OF CEHEO GORDO, 
**Otptalu Lee led the way, and showed the men just what to do. They lowered the cannons by ropes down the steep cUflb and 

hauled them up on the opposite hill-side." 

Early in August the American army had been increased to 11,000 men, 
and, leaving a small garrison at Puebla, Scott set out for the beautiful city of 
Mexico. No serious resistance offered until they reached Ayotla, fifteen miles 



260 ADMINISTRATION OF POLK. 

from the capital. There it was found that the regular road bristled with forts, 
and, although there was no doubt that all could be carried, the American com- 
mander wisely decided to move his army around to the south, where he could 
advance over a comparatively undefended route. Without any difficulty he 
reached San Augustine, which was within ten miles of the capital. 

Had the positions been changed, a force ten times as great as the Americans 
could not have captured the city of Mexico, and yet it fell before a force only 
one-third as numerous as the defenders. 

A DAY OF VICTORIES. 

The fighting began before sunrise, August 20, 1847, and when night came 
five distinct victories had been won. The fortified camp of Contreras was caj)- 
tured in about fifteen minutes. Shortly after the fortified village of San Anto- 
nio was taken by another division of the army. Almost at the same time, a 
division stormed one of the fortified heights of Churubusco, while still another 
captured the second height. Seeing the danger of his garrisons, Santa Anna 
moved out of the city and attacked the Americans. The reserves immediately 
assailed, drove him back, and chased him to the walls of the capital, into which 
the whole Mexican force crowded themselves at night. 

It was in accordance with the nature of Santa Anna that he should set 
2,000 convicts loose that night on the promise that they would fight against the 
Americans. Then he stole out of the city, whose authorities sent a delegation 
to Scott to treat for peace. This trick had been resorted to so many times by 
the Mexicans, who never kept faith, that the American commander refused to 
listen to them. An advance was made, and in a short time the city was com- 
pletely in our possession. 

SANTA ANNA. 

At Puebla there were 2,000 Americans in the hospital under charge of a 
small guard. Santa Anna attacked them, thinking that at last he had found a 
foe whom he could beat ; but he was mistaken, for reinforcements arrived in 
time to drive him away. This terminated for a time the career of the treacher- 
ous Santa Anna, with whom the Mexican people were thoroughly disgusted. 

It is proper to state at this point that Santa Anna while in command of the 
Mexican army made a direct offer to General Taylor to betray his cause for 
a large sum of money, and he actually received an installment, but circumstances 
prevented the completeness of the bargain. This miscreant was president and 
dictator of Mexico in 1853-55, was banished and returned several times, and 
was still plotting to recover his power when he died, in his eighty-second year. 

The capture of the capital of Mexico completed the victorious campaign. 
The entrance into the city was made September 14, 1847, the American flag 



41 



THE SLAVERY QUESTION. 261 

raised over the palace, and General Scott, with a sweep of his sword over his 
head, while his massive frame made a striking picture in front of the palace, 
proclaimed the conquest of the country. All tliat remained was to arrange the 
terms of peace. 

XERMS OF PEACE. 

In the following winter, American ambassadors met the Mexican congress in 
session at Guadalupe Hidalgo, so named from the small town where it was situated. 
Tliere was a good deal of discussion over the terms, our ambassadors insisting 
that Mexico should surrender tlie northern provinces, which included the present 
boundaries of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico in their 
entirety and portions of Colorado and Wyoming, as indemnity for the war. 
Mexico would not consent, and matters drifted along until the 2d of February, 
1848, when the new Mexican government agreed to these terms. The treaty was 
modified to a slight extent by the United States Senate, adopted on the 10th of 
March, ratified by the Mexican congress sitting at Queretaro, May 30th, and 
proclaimed by President Polk on the 4th of July. Thus ended our war with 
Mexico. 

By the terms of the treaty, the United States was to pay Mexico $15,000,- 
000, and assume debts to the extent of $3,000,000 due to American citizens from 
Mexico. These sums were in payment for the immense territory ceded to us. 
This cession, the annexation of Texas, and a purchase south of the Gila Eiver in 
1853, added almost a million square miles to our possessions, nearly equaling the 
Louisiana purchase and exceeding the whole area of the United States in 1783. 

It may sound strange, but it is a fact, that the governing of the new territory 
caused so much trouble that more than once it was seriously proposed in Congress 
that Mexico should be asked to take it back again. General Sherman was 
credited with the declaration that if the identity of the man who caused the annexa- 
tion of Texas could be established, he ought to be court-martialed and shot. 
However, all this changed when the vast capabilities and immeasurable worth of 
the new countries were understood. The section speedly developed a wealth, 
enterprise, and industry of which no one had before dreamed. 

THE SLAVERY QUESTION". 

The real peril involved in the acquisition of so much territory lay in the 
certainty that it would revive the slavery quarrel that had been put to sleep by 
the Missouri Comj^romise, nearly thirty years before. The North demanded that 
slavery should be excluded from the new territory, because it was so excluded 
by Mexican law, and to legalize it would keep out emigrants from the free 
States. The South demanded the authorization of slavery, since Southern emi- 
grants would not go thither without their slaves. Still others proposed to divide 



262 ADMINISTRATION OF POLK. 

the new territory by the Missouri Compromise line. This would have cut 
California in two near the middle, and made one part of the province slave and 
the other free. Altogether, it will be seen that trouble was at hand. 

Before the outbreak of the Mexican "War, Congressman David Wilmot, of 
Pennsylvania, introduced the Proviso known by his name. It was a proposal 
to purchase the territory from Mexico, provided slavery was excluded. The 
introduction of the bill produced much discussion, and it was defeated by the 
opposition of the South. 

THE OREGON BOUNDAKY DISPUTE. 

Great Britain and the United States had jointly occupied Oregon for 
twenty years, under the agreement that the occupancy could be ended by either 
country under a year's notice to the other. Many angry debates took place in 
Congress over the question whether such notice should be given. The United 
States claimed a strip of territory reaching to Alaska, latitude 54° 40', while 
Great Britain claimed the territory south of the line to the Columbia Biver. 
Congress as usual had plenty of wordy patriots who raised the cry of " Fifty- 
four forty or fight," and it was repeated throughout the country. Cooler and 
wiser counsels prevailed, each party yielded a part of its claims, and made a 
middle line the boundary. A minor dispute over the course of the boundary 
line after it reached the Pacific islets was amicably adjusted by another treaty 
in 1871. 

STATES ADMITTED. 

It has been stated that the bill for the admission of Iowa did not become 
operative until 1846. It was the fourth State formed from the Louisiana pur- 
chase, and was first settled by the French at Dubuque ; but the post died, and no 
further settlements were made until the close of the Black Hawk War of 1832, 
after which the population increased with great rapidity. 

Wisconsin was the last State formed from the old Northwest Territory. A 
few weak settlements were made by the French as early as 1668, but, as in the 
case of Iowa, its real settlement began after the Black Hawk War. 

THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 

James Smithson of England, when he died in 1829, bequeathed his large 
estate for the purpose of founding the Smithsonian Institution at Washington 
" for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men." In 1838, his estate, 
amounting to more than half a million dollars, was secured by a government 
agent and deposited in the mint. John Quincy Adams prepared a plan of 
organization, which was adopted. 

The Smithsonian Institution, so named in honor of its founder, was placed 



THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN CALIFORNIA. 



263 



under the immediate control of a board of regents, composed of the President, 
Vice-President, judges of the supreme court, and other j^rincipal officers of the 
government. It was provided that the entire sum, amounting witli accrued 
interest to $625,000, shoukl be loaned forever to the United States government 
at six per cent.; that from the proceeds, together with congressional appropri- 
ations and private gifts, proper buildings should be erected for containing a 
museum of natural history, a cabinet of minerals, a chemical laboratory, a 
gallery of art, and a library. The jjlan of organization was carried out, and. 




THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 

Professor Joseph Henry of Princeton College, the real inventor of the electro- 
magnetic telegraph, was chosen secretary. 

THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN CALIFORNIA. 

For many years hardy hunters and trappers had penetrated the vast wil- 
derness of the West and Northwest in their hunt for game and peltries. Some 
of these were in the employ of the Hudson Bay Company, whose grounds 
extended as far toward the Arctic Circle as the rugged men and toughened 
Indians could penetrate on their snowshoes. 

At points hundreds of miles apart in the gloomy solitudes were erected 
trading posts to which the red men brought furs to exchange for trinkets, blank- 
ets, firearms, and firewater, and whither the white trappers made their way, after 
an absence of months in the dismal solitudes. Further south, among the rugged 



264 



ADMINISTRATION OF POLK. 



mountains and beside the almost unknown streams, other men set their traps for 
the beaver, fox, and various fur-bearing animals. Passing the Rocky Moun- 
tains and Cascade Range they pursued their perilous avocation along the head- 
waters of the rivers flowing through California. They toiled amid the snows 
and storms of the Sierras, facing perils from the Indians, savage beasts, and the 
weather, for joay that often did not amount to the wages received by an ordinary 
day laborer. 

Little did those men suspect they were walking, sleeping, and toiling over a 
treasure bed ; that instead of tramping through snow and over ice and facing 

the arctic blasts 
and vengeful red 
men, if they had 
dug into the 
ground, they 
would have found 
wealth beyond 
estimate. 

The priests 
lived in the adobe 
haciendas that 
the Spanish had 
erected centuries 
before, and, as 
they counted their 
beads and dozed 
in calm happi- 
ness, they became 
rich in flocks and 
the tributes re- 
ceived from the simple-minded red men. Sometimes they wondered in a mild 
way at the golden trinkets and ornaments brought in by the Indians and were 
puzzled to know where they came from, but it seemed never to have occurred 
to the good men that they could obtain the same precious metal by using the 
pick and shovel. The years came and passed, and red men and white men con- 
tinued to walk over California without dreaming of the immeasurable riches 
that had been nestling for ages under their feet. 

One day in February, 1848, James W. Marshall, who had come to Cali- 
fornia from New Jersey some years before, and had been doing only moderately 
well with such odd jobs as he could pick up, was working with a companion at 
building a saw-mill for Colonel John A. Sutter, who had immigrated to thia 




GOLD -WASHINO-THE SLUICE. 



DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN CALIFORNIA. 



265 



country from Baden in 1834. Going westward, lie founded a settlement on the 
present site of Sacramento in 1841. He built Fort Sutter on the Sacramento, 
where he was visited by Fremont on his exploring expedition in 1846. 

Marshall and his companion were engaged in deepening the mill-race, the 
former being just in front of the other. Hap23ening to look around, he asked: 

" "Wliat is that shining near your boot ? " 

His friend reached his hand down into the clear water and picked up a 
bright, yellow fragment and held 
it between his fingers. 

"It is brass," he said; "but 
how bright it is ! " 

"It can't be brass," replied 
Marshall, " for there isn't a piece 
of brass within fifty miles of us." 

The other turned it over arain 
and again in his hand, put it in 
his mouth and bit it, and then 
held it up once more to the light. 
Suddenly he exclaimed : 

" I believe it's gold ! " 

" I wonder if that's possible," 
said Marshall, beginning to think 
his companion was right ; " how 
can we find out ? " 

" My wife can tell ; she has 
made some lye from wood-ashes 
and will test it." 

The man took the fragment 
to his wife, who was busy washing, 
and, at his request, she boiled it 
for several hours with the lye. Had it been brass — the only other metal it pos- 
sibly could have been — it would have turned a greenish-black. When examined 
again, however, its beautiful bright lustre was undiminished. There was scarcely 
a doubt that it was pure gold. 

The two men returned to the mill-race with pans, and washed out probably 
fifty dollars' Avorth of gold. Despite the certainty of his friend, Marshall was 
troubled by a fear that the fragment was neither brass nor gold, but some 
worthless metal of which he knew nothing. He carefully tied up all that had 
been gathered, mounted a fleet horse, and rode to Sutter's store, thirty miles 
down the American River. 




GOLD VSTASHING-THE CRADLE. 



266 ADMINISTRATION OF POLK. 

Here lie took Colonel Sutter into a private room and sliowed liim what he 
had found, saying that he believed it to be gold. Sutter read up the account of 
gold in an encyclopedia, tested the substance with aqua fortis, weighed it, and 
decided that Marshall was right, and that the material he had found was un- 
doubtedly gold. 

It was a momentous discovery, repeated nearly a half-century later, when the 
same metal was found in enormous quantities in the Klondike region. Colonel 
Sutter and his comjiauions tried to keep the matter a secret, but it was impos- 
sible. Marshall, being first on the ground, enriched himself, but by bad man- 
agement lost all he had gained and died a poor man. Colonel Sutter tried to 
keep intruders off his property, but they came like the swarms of locusts that 
plagued Egypt. They literally overran him, and when he died, in 1880, he 
was without any means whatever; but California has since erected a handsome 
statue to his memory. 

For the following ten or twenty years, it may be said, the eyes of the 
civilized world were upon California, and men rushed thither from every quar- 
ter of the globe. There was an endless j^rocession of emigrant trains across the 
plains; the ships that fought the storms on their way around Cape Horn were 
crowded almost to gunwales, while thousands halved the voyage by trudging 
across the Isthmus of Panama to the waiting ships on the other side. Cali- 
fornia became a mining camp and millions upon millions of gold were taken 
from her soil. 

THE MORMONS. 

By this time the Mormons engaged much public attention. Joseph Smith, 
of Sharon, Vermont, and Palmyra, New York, was the founder of the sect. 
He claimed to have found in a cave a number of engraved jilates, containing 
the Mormon Bible, which was his guide in the formation of a new form of 
religious belief Although polygamy was not commended, it was afterward 
added to their peculiar faith, which is that sins are remitted through baptism, 
and that the will of God was revealed to his proi^het, Smith, as it was to be 
revealed to his successors. 

The most grotesque farce in the name of religion is sure to find believers, 
and they soon gathered about Smith. The first Mormon conference was held at 
Fayette, N. Y., in 1830. As their number increased, they saw that the West 
offered the best opportunity for growth and expansion, and, when there were 
nearly 2,000 of them, they removed to Jackson, Missouri, where they made a 
settlement. Their practices angered the people, and, as soon as they could find 
a good pretext, the militia were called out and they were ordered to "move on." 

Crossing the Mississippi into Illinois, they laid out a city which they 
named Nauvoo. Some of them were wealthy, and, as they held their means in 



4 



THE MORMONS. 



267 



common, they were able to erect a beautiful temple and numerous residences. 
Converts now flocked to them until they numbered fully 10,000. Their neigh- 
bors were disjileased with their presence, and the feeling grew into indignation 
when the Mormons not only refused to obey the State laws, but defied them and 
passed laws of their own in open opposition. In the excitement that followed, 
Joseph Smith and his brother Hyram were arrested and lodged in jail at Car- 
thage. Lynch-law was as popular in the West as it is to-day in the South, and 
a mob broke into the jail and killed the Smith brothers. This took jDlace in 
June, 1844, and the Illinois Legislature annulled the charter of Nauvoo. 




QBEAT SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH. 

The experience of the Mormons convinced them that they would never be 
allowed to maintain their organization in any of the States. They, therefore, 
gathered up their worldly goods, and, in 1846, set out on the long journey to 
the far West. Reaching the Basin of Utah, they founded Great Salt Lake City, 
which is one of the handsomest, best governed, and cleanest (in a jjhysical 
sense) cities in the world. 

While referring to these peculiar people, we may as well complete their 
history by anticijjating events that followed. 

In 1857, our government attempted to extend its judicial system over Utah 
Territory. Brigham Young, the successor of Joseph Smith, until then had not 
been disturbed, and he did not mean to be interfered with by any government. 



268 ADMINISTRATION OF POLK. 

He insulted the Federal judges sent thitlier and drove them out of the Terri- 
tory, his pretext being that the objectionable character of the judges justified 
the step. Our government, which is always patient in such matters, could not 
accept this explanation, and Alfred Gumming, superintendent of Indian affairs 
on the Ujiper Missouri, was made governor of Utah and Judge Delano Eckels, 
of Indiana, was appointed chief justice of the Territory. Knowing that he 
would be resisted. Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston was sent thither to compel 
obedience to the laws. 

The United States troops, numbering 2,500, entered the Territory in Oc- 
tober and were attacked by the Mormons, who destroyed their supply train and 
compelled the men to seek winter quarters near Fort Bridges. Affairs were in 
this critical state when a messenger from the President, in the spring of 1858, 
carried a conciliatory letter to Brigham Young, which did much to soothe his 
ruffled feelings. Then, by-and-by. Governor Powell of Kentucky and Major 
McGuUoch of Texas appeared with a proclamation of pardon to all who would 
submit to Federal authority. The Mormons were satisfied, accepted the terms, 
and in May, 1860, the United States troops were withdrawn from the Territory. 

Since that time our government has had many difficulties in dealing with 
the Mormons. Although polygamy is forbidden by the laws of the States and 
Territories, the sect continued to practice it. In March, 1882, Gongress passed 
what is known as the Edmunds Act, which excluded Mormons from local offices 
which they had hitherto wdiolly controlled. Many persons were indicted and 
punished for the practice of polygamy, while others abandoned it. Brigham 
Young, who had become governor of Deseret in 1849, and two years later was 
appointed governor of Utah, died in 1877, at which time he was president of 
the Mormon church. The practice of polygamy was never fully eradicated, 
and Utah, at this writing, is represented in the United States Senate by men who 
make no attemjit at concealing the fact that they are polygamists. 

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1848. 

The former Democrats and Whigs who were friendly to the Wilmot 
Proviso formed the Free Soil party in 1848, to which also the Abolitionists 
naturally attached themselves. The regular Whigs and Democrats refused to 
support the Wilmot Proviso, through fear of alienating the South. The Free 
Soilers named as their nominees Martin Van Buren, for President, and Gharles 
Francis Adams, of Massachusetts, for Vice-President ; the Democrats selected 
Louis Gass, of Michigan, for President, and William O. Butler, of Kentucky, for 
Vice-President ; the AVhig candidates were General Zachary Taylor, of Louis- 
iana, for President, and Millard Fillmore, of New York, for Vice-President. 
At the electoral vote Zachary Taylor was elected President and Millard Fill- 
more Vice-President. 



41 



CHAPTER XIV. 



ADMINISTRATIONS OK TAYLOR, KILLMORE, 
PIERCE, AND BUCHANAN, 18-49—1857. 

Zaobary Taylor — The "Irrepressible Conflict" in Congress — The Omnibus Bill — Death of President 
Taylor — Millard Fillmore — Death of the Old Leaders and Debut of the New — The Census of 1850— 
Surveys for a Railway to the Pacific — Presidential Election of 1852 — Franklin Pierce — Death of 
Vice-President King — A Commercial Treaty Made with Japan — Filibustering Expeditions — The 
Ostend Manifesto — The "Know Nothing" Party — The Kansas Nebraska Bill and Repeal of the 
Missouri Compromise. 

ZACHARY TAYLOR. 

General Zachary Taylor, twelfth President of the United States, was born 
at Orange Court-House, Virginia, 
September 24, 1784, but, while an 
infant, his parents removed to Ken- 
tucky. His school education was 
slight, but he possessed fine mili- 
tary instincts and developed into 
one of the best of soldiers. His 
services in the war of 1812 and in 
that with Mexico have been told in 
their proper place. His defense of 
Fort Harrison, on the Wabash, dur- 
ing the last war with England, won 
him the title of major by brevet, 
that being the first time the honor 
was conferred in the American 
army. 

No man could have been less a 
politician than " Old Rough and 
Keady," for he had not cast a vote 
in forty years. Daniel Webster char- 
acterized him as an " ignorant fron- 
tier colonel," and did not conceal his 
disgust over his nomination by the great party of which the New England 
orator was the leader. It was Taylor's brilliant services in Mexico that 
made him popular above all others with the masses, who are the ones that 

(269i 




1 ZACHABY TAYLOR. 

(PW-IS '0 ) One partial term, 1849-185a 



270 TAYLOR, FILL3I0RE, PIERCE, AND BUCHANAN. 

make and unmake presidents. Besides, a great many felt that Taylor had not 
been generously treated by the government, and this sentiment had much to do 
with his nomination and election. 

THE lEKEPKESSIBLE CONFLICT. 

The " irrepressible conflict " between slavery and freedom could not be post- 
poned, and when, on the 13th of February, 1850, the President sent to Con- 
gress the j^etition of California for admission as a State, the quarrel broke out 
afiTsh. The j^eculiar character of the problem has already been stated. A 
part of California lay north and a 2:)art south of 36° 30', the dividing line be- 
tween slavery and freedom as defined by the Missouri Compromise, thirty years 
before. Congress, therefore, had not the power to exclude slavery, and the 
question had to be decided by the people themselves. They had already done 
so by inserting a clause in the Constitution which prohibited slavery. 

There were violent scenes on the floor of Congress. General Foote, of 
Mississippi, was on the point of discharging a j^istol at Colonel Benton, of Mis- 
souri, when bystanders seized his arm and prevented. Weapons were frequently 
drawn, and nearly every member went about armed and ready for a deadly 
affray. The South threatened to secede from the Union, and we stood on the 
brink of civil war. 

THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

It was at this fearful juncture that Henry Clay, now an old man, submitted 
to the Senate his famous " Omnibus Bill," so called because of its many feat- 
ures, which proposed a series of compromises as follows : the admission of Cali- 
fornia as a State, with the Constitution adopted by her people (which prohibited 
slavery) ; the establishment of territorial governments over all the other newly 
acquired Territories, with no reference to slavery ; the abolishment of all traffic 
in slaves in the District of Columbia, but declaring it inexpedient to abolish 
slavery there without the consent of the inhabitants and also of Maryland ; the 
assumption of the debts of Texas ; while all fugitive slaves in the free States 
should be liable to arrest and return to slavery. 

John C. Calhoun, the Southern leader, was earnestly opposed to the com- 
promise, but he was ill and within a few weeks of death, and his argument was 
read in the Senate by Senator Mason. Daniel Webster supj^orted the measure 
with all his logic and eloquence, and it Avas his aid extended to Clay that 
brought about the passage of the bill, all the sections becoming laws in Sej^tem- 
ber, 1850, and California, conquered from Mexico in 1846, took her place among 
the sisterhood of States. Webster's support of the fugitive slave law lost hira 
many friends in the North, and, has been stated, rendered his election to the 
presidency impossible. 



MILLARD FILL3I0RE. 



271 



On the 4th of July, 1850, the remains from Kosciusko's tomb were depos- 
ited in the monument in Washington, and President Taylor was present at the 
ceremonies. The heat was terrific and caused him great distress. On his return 
home he drank lai'ge quantities of ice- water and milk, though he was warned 
against the danger of doing so. A fatal illness followed, and he died on the 9th 
of July. Vice-President Fillmore was sworn into office on the following day. 



MILLARD FILLMORE. 

Millard Fillmore, the thirteenth President, was born at Summer Hill, 
New York, February 7, 1800. He 
learned the fuller's trade, afterward 
taught school, and, studying law, 
was admitted to the bar in Buffalo, 
where he attained marked success. 
He was State comjotroUer for one 
term and served in Congress for four 
terms. He died in Buffalo, March 
7, 1874. Fillmore was a man of 
good ability, but the inferior of many 
of those who preceded him in the 
exalted office. He was a believer in 
the compromise measures of Clay, 
and performed his duties conscien- 
tiously and acceptably. 

Fillmore's administration is no- 
table for the fact that it saw the 
passing away of the foremost lead- 
ers. Clay, Webster, and Calhoun, 
with others of less prominence. 
They were succeeded in Congress 
by the anti-slavery champions, Wil- 
liam H. Seward, of New York; Charles Sumner, of Massachusetts; and 
Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio. From the South, too, came able men, in Jefferson 
Davis, of Mississippi ; John Y. Mason, of Louisiana ; and others. The giants 
had departed and their mantles fell upon shoulders that were not always able 
to wear them as fittingly as their predecessors. 

The slavery agitation produced its natural effect in driving many of the 
Southern Whigs into the Democratic party, while a few Northern Democrats 
united with the Whigs, who, however, were so disrupted that the organization 




MILLAHD FILLMORE. 

(1800-1874.) One partial term, 1850-53. 



272 TAYLOR, FILLMORE, PIERCE, AND BUCHANAN. 

crumbled to pieces after tlie isresidential election of 1852, and, for a time, no 
effective opjiositiou to the Democratic party seemed possible. 

THE NEED OF A TRANS-CONTINENTAL RAILROAD. 

The population of the United States in 1840 was 23,191,876. General 
prosperity prevailed, but all felt the urgent need of a railroad connecting Mis- 
souri and California. The Pacific coast had become a leading part of the Union 
and its importance was growing every year. But the building of such a rail- 
way, through thousands of miles of wilderness, across lofty mountains and large 
rivers, was an undertaking so gigantic and expensive as to be beyond the reach 
of private parties, without congressional assistance. Still all felt that the road 
must be built, and, in 1853, Congress ordered surveys to be made in order to 
find the best route. The building of the railway, however, did not begin until 
the War for the Union was well under way. 

PKESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1852. 

When the time arrived for presidential nominations, the Democratic con- 
vention met in Baltimore, June 12, 1852. The most prominent candidates 
were James Buchanan, Stephen A. Douglas, Lewis Cass, and William L. Marcy. 
There was little variance in their strength for thirty-five ballots, and everybody 
seemed to be at sea, when the Virginia delegation, on the next ballot, presented 
the name of Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire. 

" AVho is Franklin Pierce ? " was the question that went round the hall, 
but, on the forty-ninth ballot, he received 282 votes to 11 for all the others, and 
the question was repeated throughout the United States. Pierce's ojiponent 
was General Winfield Scott, the commander-in-chief in the Mexican War, 
who had done fine service in the War of 1812, and ranks among the foremost 
military leaders of our country. But, personally, he was unpopular, overbear- 
ing in his manners, a martinet, and without any personal magnetism. No 
doubt he regarded it as an act of impertinence for Pierce, who had been his sub- 
ordinate in Mexico, to presume to pit himself against him in the political field, 
But the story told by the November election was an astounding one and read 
as follows : 

Franklin Pierce, of New Hampshire, Democrat, 254 ; Winfield Scott, of 
New Jersey, Whig, 42; John P. Hale, of New Hampshire, Free Democrat, 0; 
Daniel Webster, of Massachusetts, Whig, 0. For Vice-President : William R. 
King, of Alabama, Democrat, 254 ; William A. Graham, of North Carolina, 
Whig, 42 ; George W. Julian, of Indiana, Free Democrat, 0. 

The Whig convention which put Scott in nomination met also in Baltimore, 
a few davs after the Democratic convention. Webster was confident of receiv- 



FRANKLIN PIERCE. 



273 



ing the nomination, and it was the disappointment of his life that he failed. 
The " Free Democrats," who placed candidates in nomination, represented those 
who were dissatisfied with the various compromise measures that had been 
adopted by Congress. The only States carried by Scott were Vermont, Massa- 
chusetts, Kentucky, and Tennessee. 



FRANKLIN PIERCE. 

Franklin Pierce, the fourteenth President, was born at Hillsborough, New 
Hampshire, November 23, 1804. Upon his graduation from Bowdoin College, 
he became a successful lawyer. He 
always showed a fondness for mili- 
tary matters, though not to the ex- 
tent of neglecting politics and his 
profession. He was elected to his 
State Legislature and was a mem- 
ber of Congress from 1833 to 1837, 
and, entering the Senate in 1839, he 
remained until 1842, afterward de- 
clining a cabinet appointment from 
President Polk. He volunteered in 
the Mexican War, commanded a 
brigade, and showed great gallantry 
in several battles. He died October 
8, 1869. 

Mr. King, the Vice-President, 
was in such feeble health that he 
took the oath of office in Cuba, and, 
returning to his native State, died 
April 18, 1853, being the first vice- 
president to die in office. One re- 
markable fact should be stated re- 
garding the administration of Pierce : there was not a change in his cabinet 
throughout his whole term, the only instance of the kind thus far in our history. 




FBAWKLIN" PIEECE. 
(1804-1S68.) One term, 1853-1857. 



A TREATY WITH JAPAN. 

It seems strange that until a few years, Japan was a closed nation to the 
world. Its people refused to have anything to do with any other country, and 
wished nothing from them except to be let alone. In 1854, Commodore M. C 
Perry visited Japan with an American fleet and induced the government ta 
make a commercial treaty with our own 

18 



This was the beginning of the mar- 



2?4 TAYLOR, FILLMORE, PIERCE, AND BUCf/ANAK 

velous progress of that country in civilization and education, which forms one 
of the most astonishing records in the history of mankind. Jaj^an's over- 
whelming defeat of China, whose population is ten times as great as our own ; 
her acceptance of the most advanced ideas of civilization, and the wisdom of 
her rulers have carried her in a few years to a rank among the leading 
powers and justified the appellation of the "Yankees of the East," which is 
sometimes apjplied to her people. 

FILIBUSTERING. 

Pierce's administration was marked by a number of filibustering expeditions 
against Spanish possessions in the West Indies. None of them succeeded, and 
a number of the leaders were shot by the Spanish authorities. The American 
government offered to purchase Cuba of Spain, but that country indignantly 
replied that the mints of the world had not coined enough gold to buy it. Could 
she have foreseen the events of 1898, no doubt she would have sold out for a 
moderate price. 

In August, 1854, President Pierce directed Mr. Buchanan, minister to Eng- 
land, Mr. Mason, minister to France, and Mr. Soule, envoy to Spain, to meet at some 
convenient place and discuss the question of obtaining jDossession of Cuba. These 
distinguished gentlemen met at Ostend on the 9th of October, and adjourned 
to Aix-la-Chapelle, from which place they issued, on the 18th of October, what 
is known as the " Ostend Manifesto or Circular," in which they recommended 
the purchase of Cuba, declaring that, if Spain refused to sell, the United States 
would be justified "by every law, human and divine," in wresting it from her. 
This declaration, for which there was no justification whatever, caused angry 
protest in Europe and in the free States of our country, but was ardently 
applauded in the South. Nothing came of it, and the country soon became so 
absorbed in the slavery agitation that it was forgotten. 



THE "know nothings." 



Patriotic men, who feared what was coming, did all in their power to avert 
it. One of these attempts was the formation of the "Know Nothing" party, 
which grew up like a mushroom and speedily acquired a jiower that enabled it 
to carry many local elections in the various States. It was a secret organization, 
the members of which were bound by oath to oppose the election of foreign- 
born citizens to office. The salutation, when one member met another, was, 
"Have you seen Sam?" If one of them was questioned about the order, his 
reply was that he knew nothing, from which the name was given to what was 
really the Native American party. It soon ran its course, but has been suc- 
ceeded in its cardinal princiijles by the American Protective Association of the 
present day. 



i 



THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 



275 



Meanwhile, the slavery question was busy at its work of disintegration. 
The Democratic party was held together for a time by the Comj^romise of 1850, 
to the effect that the inhabitants of the new Territories of New Mexico and 
Utah should be left to decide for themselves the question of slavery. In a few 
years the settlements in Nebraska and Kansas made it necessary to erect terri- 
torial governments there, and the question of slavery was thus brought before 
Congress again. The Missouri Compromise forbade slavery forever in those sec- 
tions, for both of them lie to the north parallel of 36° 30'. Stephen A. Douglas, 
however, and a number of other Democratic leaders in Congress claimed thai 
the Compromise of 1850 nullified this — 
agreement, and that the same freedom of 
choice should be given to the citizens 
of Kansas and Nebraska as was given 
to those in Utah and New Mexico. 
This policy was called "Squatter Sov- 
ereignty." 



THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 

The bill was bitterly fought in Con- 
gress, but it passed the Senate by a vote 
of thirty-seven to fourteen, and after 
another fierce struggle was adopted in 
the House by a vote of 113 to 100. 
It received sevei'al amendments, and the 
President signed it May 31, 1854. 
Thus the Missouri Compromise was 
repealed and the first note of civil war 
sounded. The question of slavery was 
opened anew, and could never be closed 




liUCKETIA MOTT. 

The advance agent of emancipation. 
a793-18'0.) 



without the shedding of blood to an extent that no one dreamed. 



FORMATION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 



The enforcement of the fugitive slave law was resisted in the North and 
numerous conflicts took place. During the attempted arrest of Anthony Burns 
in Boston a deputy-sheriff was shot dead, and Federal troops from Rhode Island 
had to be summoned before Burns could be returned to slavery. Former political 
opponents began uniting in both sections. In the North the opponents of 
slavery, comprising Democrats, Free-Soilers, Know Nothings, Whigs, and Abo- 
litionists, joined in the formation of the "Anti-Nebraska Men," and under that 
name they elected, in 1854, a majority of the House of Representatives for the 



276 



TAYLOR, FILLMORE, PIERCE, AND BUCHANAN. 



next Congress. Soon after the election, the new organization took the name of 
Republicans, by which they are known to-day. Its members, with a few ex- 
ceptions among the Germans in Missouri and the Ohio settlers in western 
Virginia, belonged wholly to the North. 



CIVIL WAR IN KANSAS. 

Kansas became for the time the battle-ground between slavery and freedom. 
Societies in the North sent emigrants into Kansas, first furnishing them with 
Bibles and rifles, while the pro-slavery men swarmed thither from Missouri, and 
the two parties fought each other like Apache Indians. In the midst of the 
civil war, a territorial legislature was formed, and in many instances the majority 
of the candidates elected wns double that of the voting population in the district. 

Governor A. H. Reeder, of Pennsylvania, had 
been appointed governor of tlie Territory, and, 
finding himself powerless to check the anarchy, 
went to Washington in April, 1855, to consult 
with the government. While there he was 
nominated for Congress, and defeated by the 
fraudulent votes of the pro-slavery men. 

Meanwhile, two State governments had been 
formed. The jiro-slavery men met at Lecomji- 
ton, in March, and adopted a Constitution per- 
mitting slavery. Their opjionents assembled in 
Lawrence, August 15th, and elected delegates, 
who came together in October and ratified the 
Topeka Constitution, which forbade slavery. 
In January, 1856, the people held an election 
under this Constitution. In the same month 
President Pierce sent a message to Congress, in which he declared the for- 
mation of a free State government in Kansas an act of rebellion, while 
that adoj^ted at LecomjDton was the valid government. Governor Reeder 
was superseded by William Shannon. A committee sent by Congress into 
the Territory to investigate and rejDort could not agree, and nothing came 
of it. 

The civil war grew worse. A free State government, with General Joseph 
Lane as its head and supported by a well-armed force, was formed at Lawrence. 
The town was sacked and almost destroyed, May 20, 1856. On the 4th of July 
following, the free State Legislature was dispersed by Federal troops, upon order 
of the national government. 

John W. Geary now tried his hand as governor. His first step was to call 




HENRY WARD BEECHER. 

The Great Pulpit Orator and Aati-Slavery 
Agitator. 



41 



JA3IE8 BUCHANAN. 2Ti 

upon both parties to disarm, aud neither paid any attention to him. Finding he 
could not have the support of the President in the vigorous policy he wished to 
adopt, Governor Geary resigned aud was succeeded by Robert J. Walker of Mis- 
sissippi. He showed a disposition to be fair to all concerned, but, before he 
could accom2:>lish anything, he was turned out to make room for J. W. Denver. 
He was soon disgusted and gave way to Samuel Medary. Before long, it be- 
came evident that the influx of northern settlers must overcome the pro-slavery 
men, and the struggle was given up by the latter. A constitution prohibiting 
slavery was ratified in 1859 and Charles Robinson elected governor. 

VIOLENT SCENES IN CONGRESS. 

Nebraska lies so far north that it was not disturbed. Acts of disgraceful 
violence took place in Congress, challenges to duels being exchanged, jjersonal 
collisions occurring on the floor, while most of the members went armed, not 
knowing what minute they would be assaulted. In May, 1856, Senator Charles 
Sumner, of Massachusetts, for utterances made in debate, was savagely assaulted 
by Preston S. Brooks, of South Carolina, and received injuries from which he 
did not recover for several years. Brooks was lionized in the South for his 
brutal act and re-elected to Congress by an overwhelming majority. 

The Republican party was growing rapidly in strength, and in 1856 it 
placed its candidates in the field and astonished the rest of the country by the 
vote it rolled up, as shown in the following statistics : 

James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, Democrat, 174 ; John C. Fremont, of 
California, Republican, 114 ; Millard Fillmore, of New York, Native Ameri- 
can, 8. For Vice-President, John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, Democrat, 
174 ; William L. Dayton, of New Jersey, Republican, 114 ; A. J. Donelson, of 
Tennessee. Native American, 8. 

JAMES BUCHANAW. 

James Buchanan, fifteenth President, was born in Mercersburg, Pennsyl- 
vania, April 23, 1791, and graduated from Dickinson College in 1809. He be- 
came a lawyer, was elected to the State Legislature and to Congress in 1821. 
Thenceforward, he was almost continuously in office. President Jackson 
appointed him minister to Russia in 1832, but, soon returning home, he was 
elected to the United States Senate in 1834. He left that body, in 1845, to 
become Polk's secretary of State. In 1853, he was appointed minister to 
England, where he remained until his election to the presidency in 1856. He 
died at his home in Lancaster, June 1, 1868. The many honors conferred upon 
Buchanan prove his ability, though he has been often accused of showing timid- 



278 



TAYLOR, FILLMORE, PIERCE, AND BUCHANAN. 



ity during liis term of office, wliicli was of the most trying nature. He waa the 
only bachelor among our Presidents. 



STATES ADMITTED. 

Minnesota was admitted to the Union in 1858. It was a pa*k ()f the Lou- 
isana purchase. Troubles over the Indian titles delayed its fc.ettlement until 
1851, after which its growth Avas wonderfully rapid. Oregon was admitted in 
1859. The streams of emigration to Ca'ifornia overflowed into Oregon, where 
some of the precious metal was found. It was learned, he wever, in time that 

Oregon's most valuable treasure 
mine was in her wheat, which is ex- 
ported to all parts of the world. 
Kansas, of which we have given an 
account in the preceding pages, was 
quietly admittvid, directly after the 
seceding Senators abandoned their 
seats, their vctes having kept it out 
up to that time. The population of 
the United States in 1860 was 31,- 
443,321. Prosperity prevailed every- 
where, and, but for tlie darkening 
shadows of civil war, the condition of 
no people could have been more 
happy and promising. 

THE DRED SCOTT DECISION, 

Dred Scott was the negro slave 
uf Dr. Emerson, of Missouri, a sur- 
geon in the United States army. In 
the discharge of his duty, his owner 
took him to military posts in Illi- 
nois and Minnesota. Scott married a negro woman in Minnesota, and both 
were sold by Dr. Emerson upon his return to Missoui-i. The negro brought suit 
for his freedom on the ground that he had been taken into territory where 
slavery was forbidden. The case passed through the various State courts, and, 
reaching the United States Supreme Court, that body made its decision in March, 
1857. 

This decision was to the effect that negro slaves were not citizens, and no 
means existed by which tliey could become such; they were simply property 
like household goods and chattels, and their owner could take them into any 




JAMES BUCHANAN. 

(17iil-l»(j-.J One term, 1857-1861. 



THE BRED SCOTT DECISION. 



279 



State in the "Zifdon without forfeiting his ownership) in them. It followed also 
from this Lvj^'-crtant decision that the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and the 
Comprorx,ise of 1850 were null and void, since it was beyond the jiower 

of the co;7tracting parties to make such rfr — f (^j]y^; ■ — "" "■'' - 

agreements. Six of the justices con- i! « ' 

curred in this decision and twii ills,-!ented. '' ' ^ 




IiUCRETIA MOTT PROTECTIWO THE NEGKO DANGERFIELD FROM THE MOB IN 

PHILADELPHIA. 

',?hen Daniel Dangerfield, a fugiti%-e slave, was tried in Philadelphia, Lucretia Mott sat during all his trial by the side of the 
prisoner. When the trial was ended Dangerfield was set at liberty, and Mrs. Mott wallied out of the court-room and through the 
mob which threatened to lynch him, her hand on the colored man's arm, and that little hand was a sure protector, for no one 
dared to touch him. 

This decision was received with delight in the South and repudiated in the 
^orth. The contention there was that the Constitution regarded slaves as 



280 TAYLOR, FILLMORE, PIERCE, AND BUCHANAN. 

"persons held to labor" and not as property, and that they were property only 
by State law. 

JOHN brown's EAID. 

While the chasm between the North and South was rapidly growing wider, 
a startling occurrence took place. John Brown was a fanatic who believed 
Heaven had appointed him its agent for freeing the slaves in the South. He 
was one of the most active partisans on the side of freedom in the civil war in 
Kansas, and had been brooding over the subject for years, until his belief in his 
mission became unshakable. 

Brown's plan was simple, being that of invading Virginia with a small 
armed force and calling upon the slaves to rise. He believed they would flock 
around him, and he fixed upon Harper's Ferry as the point to begin his cru- 
sade. 

Secretly gathering a band of twenty men, in the month of October, 1859, 
he held them ready on the Maryland shore. Late on Sunday night, the 16th, 
they crossed the railway bridge over the*Potomac, seized the Federal armory at 
Harper's Ferry, stopped all railroad trains, arrested a number of citizens, set 
free such slaves as they came across, and held complete possession of the town 
for twenty-four hours. 

Brown acted with vigor. He threw out pickets, cut the telegraph wires, and 
sent word to the slaves that their day of deliverance had come and they were 
summoned to rise. By this time the citizens had themselves risen, and, attack- 
ing the invaders, drove them into the armory, from which they maintained fire 
until it became clear that they must succumb. Several made a break, but were 
shot down. Brown retreated to an engine-house with his wounded and prisoners 
and held his assailants at bay all through Monday and the night following. 

News having been sent to Washington, Colonel Robert E. Lee arrived 
Tuesday morning with a force of marines and laud troops. The local militia of 
Virginia had also been called out. The situation of Brown was hopeless, but 
he refused to surrender. Colonel Lee managed matters with such skill that 
only one of his men was shot, while Brown was wounded several times, his 
two sons killed, and others slain. The door of the engine-house was battered in 
and the desperate men overpowered. The enraged citizens would have rended 
them to pieces, had they been allowed, but Colonel Lee protected and turned 
them over to the civil authorities. Brown and his six companions were placed 
on trial, found guilty of what was certainly an act either of madness or crime, 
and hanged on the 2d of December, 1859. 

Many in the South believed that the act of Brown was planned and 
supported by leading Republicans, but such was not the fact, and they were as 
earnest in condemnation of the mad proceeding as the extreme slavery men, but 



PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1860. 



281 



John Brown's raid served to fan the spark of civil war that was ah-eady kindled 
and fast growing into a flame. 



PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1860. 

The presidential campaigns that had been pressed heretofore with a certain 
philosophic good nature, now assumed a tragic character. The South saw the 
growing preponderance of the North. New States were continually forming 
out of the enormous territory in the West, the opposition to slavery was inten- 




HARPEK'a FEKHY. 



sifying, and its overthrow was certain. Senator Seward had announced the 
"irrepressible conflict" between freedom and the institution, and the only 
remedy the South saw lay in secession from the Union, for they loved that less 
than slavery. They announced their unalterable intention of seceding in the 
event of the election of a president of Republican principles. The Republicans 
placed Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, in nomination. Jefferson Davis saw that 
the only way of defeating him was by uniting all the opposing parties into one. 
He urored such a union, but the elements would not fuse. 



282 TAYLOR, FILL3I0RE, PIERCE, AND BUCHANAN. 

The Democratic convention assembled in Charleston in April, 1860, and 
had hardly come together when the members began quarreling over slavery. 
Some of the radicals insisted upon the adoption of a resolution favoring the 
o^^ening of the slave trade, in retaliation for the refusal of the North to obey the 
fugitive slave law. This measure, however, was voted down, and many were in 
favor of adopting compromises and making concessions for the sake of the 
Union. Stephen A. Douglas was their candidate, but no agreement could be 
made, and the convention split apart. The extremists were not satisfied with 
"squatter sovereignty," and, determined to prevent the nomination of Douglas, 
they withdrew from the convention. Those who remained, after balloting some 
time without result, adjourned to Baltimore, where, on the 18th of June, they 
placed Douglas in nomination, with Herschel V. Johnson as the nominee for 
Vice-President. Their platform was the doctrine that the people of each 
Territory should settle the question of slavery for themselves, but they expressed 
a willingness to abide by the decision of the Supreme Court. 

The seceding delegates adjourned to Richmond, and again to Baltimore, 
where, June 28th, they nominated John C. Breckinridge for President and 
Joseph Lane for Vice-President. Their platform declared unequivocally in 
favor of slavery being protected in all parts of the Union, where the owners 
chose to take their slaves. 

The American party, which called themselves Constitutional Unionists, 
had already met in Baltimore, and nominated John Bell for President and 
Edward Everett for Vice-President. Their platform favored the " Constitu- 
tion, the Union, and the enforcement of the laws." This platform was of the 
milk-and-water variety, appealing too weakly to the friends and opponents of 
slavery to develop great strength. The question of African slavery had become 
the burning one before the country, and the people demanded that the political 
platforms should give out no uncertain sound. 

Amid uncontrollable excitement, the presidential election took place with 
the following result : 

Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, Republican, 180; Stephen A. Douglas, of 
Illinois, Democrat, 12; John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, Democrat, 72; 
John Bell, of Tennessee, Union, 39. For Vice-President : Hannibal Hamlin, 
of Maine, Republican, 180; Herschel V. Johnson, of Georgia, Democrat, 12; 
Joseph Lane, of Oregon, Democrat, 72 ; Edward Everett, of Massachusetts, 
Union, 39. 

On the popular vote, Lincoln received 1,866,352 ; Douglas, 1,375,157 ; Breck- 
inridge, 845,763 ; Bell, 589,581. Lincoln had the electoral votes of all the 
Northern States, except a part of New Jersey ; Virginia, Kentucky, and Ten- 
nessee supported Bell, while most of the Southern States voted for Breckin- 



FORMATION OF THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY. 283 

ridge. The Democratic party, which, with the exception of the break in 1840 
and 1848, had controlled the country for sixty years, was now driven from the 
field. 

SECESSION AND FORMATION OF THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY. 

The hope was general that the South would not carry out her threat of 
seceding from the Union, and, but for South Carolina, she would not have done 
so ; but that pugnacious State soon gave proof of her terrible earnestness. Her 
Convention assembled in Charleston, and passed an ordinance of secession, De- 
cember 20, 1860, declaring " That the Union heretofore existing between this 
State and the other States of North America is dissolved." The other Southern 
States, although reluctant to give up the Union, felt it their duty to stand by 
the pioneer in the movement against it, and passed ordinances of secession, as 
follows : Mississippi, January 9, 1861 ; Florida, January 10th ; Alabama, Jan- 
uary 11th ; Georgia, January 19th ; Louisiana, January 26th ; and Texas, 
February 23d. 

In the hope of averting civil war numerous peace meetings were held in 
the North, and Virginia called for a " peace conference," which assembled in 
Washington, February 4th. The States represented included most of those in 
the North, and Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, 
Kentucky, and Missouri. Ex-President Tyler, of Virginia, was made president 
of the conference. The proposed terms of settlement were rejected by the Virginia 
and North Carolina delegates and refused by Congress, which, since the with- 
drawal of the Southern members, was controlled by the Republicans. 

The next step of the Southern conventions was to send delegates to Mont- 
gomery, Alabama, where they formed " The Confederate States of America," 
with Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, President, and Alexander H. Stephens, of 
Georgia, Vice-President. A constitution and flag, both resembling those of the 
United States, were adopted and all departments of the government organized. 

As the various States adopted ordinances of secession they seized the gov- 
ernment property within their limits. In most cases, the Southern United 
States officers resigned and accepted commissions in the service of the Confeder- 
acy. The only forts saved were those near Key West, Fort Pickens at Pensa- 
cola, and Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor. The South Carolina authorities 
began preparations to attack Sumter, and when the steamer Slav of the West 
attempted to deliver supplies to the fort, it was fired upon, January 9th, and 
driven off". Thus matters stood at the close of Buchanan's administration, 
March 4, 1861. 




THE BLUE ANO THE GRAY, 



CHAPTER XV. 



ADTvlINISTRATION OK LINCOLN, 1831-1885. 

THE WAR FOR THE UNION, 1861. 

Abraham Lincoln — Major Anderson's Trying Position— JefiFerson Davis — Inauguration of President 
Lincoln— Bombardment of Fort Sumter — War Preparations North and South — Attack on Union 
Troops in Baltimore — Situation of the Border States— Unfriendliness of England and France — Friend- 
ship of Russia — The States that Composed the Southern Confederacy — Union Disaster at Big Bethel 
— Success of the Union Campaign in Western Virginia— General George B. MoClellan— First Battle 
of Bull Run — General McClellan Called to the Command of the Army of the Potomac — Union Dis- 
aster at Ball's BluiF — Military Operations in Missouri — Battle of Wilson's Creek — Defeat of Colonel 
Mulligan at Lexington, Mo. — Supersedure of Fremont — Operations on the Coast — The Trent AflFair 
— Summary of the Year's Operations. 

Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth President, ranks among the greatest that 
has ever presided over the desti- 
nies of our country. He was born 
in Hardin (now Larue) County, 
Kentucky, February 12, 1809, but 
when seven years old his parents 
removed to Indiana, making their 
home near the present town of Gen- 
tryville. 

His early life was one of extreme 
poverty, and his whole schooling 
did not amount to more than a 
year; but, possessing a studious 
mind, he improved every spare 
hour in the study of instructive 
books. At the age of sixteen the 
tall, awkward, but powerful boy 
was earning a living by managing 
a ferry across the Ohio. He re- 
mained for some time after reaching 
manhood with his parents, who re- 
moved to Illinois in 1830, and built 
a log-cabin on the north fork of the 
Sangamon. He was able to give valuable help in clearing the ground and 




ABRAHAM LUfCOLW. 

(1809-1366.) Two terms (died in office), 1861-1865. 



am 



286 



ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 




in splitting rails. With the aid of a few friends he constructed a flat-boat, 
with which he took produce to New Orleans. Selling both goods and boat, 
he returned to his home and still assisted his father on the farm. In the Black 
Hawk War he was elected cajitaiu of a company, but did not see active 
service. 

By this time his ability had attracted the notice of friends, and at the age 
of twenty-five he was elected to the Illinois Legislature, in which he served for 

four terms. Meanwhile he 
had studied law as oppor- 
tunity presented, and was 
sent to Congress in 1846. 
He opposed the war with 
Mexico, but, among such 
giants as Webster, Clay, 
Calhoun, Benton, and 
others, he could not make 
any distinctive mark ; but 
his powerful common sense, 
his clear logic, his unassail- 
able integrity, his states- 
manship and grasp of pub- 
lic questions, and his 
quaint humor, often ap- 
proaching the keenest wit, 
carried him rapidly to the 
front and made him the 
leader of the newly formed 
Kepublican party. I n 
1858 he stumjjed Illinois 
for United States senator 
against Stephen A. Doug- 
las, his valued friend. His 
speeches attracted national 
attention as masterpieces of eloquence, wit, and forceful presentation of the 
great issues which were then agitating the country. He was defeated by Doug- 
las, but the remarkable manner in which he acquitted himself made him the 
successful candidate of the Republican party in the autumn of 1860. 

Lincoln was tall and ungainly, his height being six feet four inches. His 
countenance was rugged and homely, his strength as great as that of Washington, 
while hia wit has become proverbial. His integrity, which his bitterest opponent 




FBOM LOG-OABIN TO THE \VHITE HOUSE. 



I 



MAJOR ANDERSON AND FORT SUMTER. 



287 



never questioned, won for him the name of " Honest Abe." He was one of the 
most kind-hearted of men, and liis rule of life was " malice toward none and 
charity for all." He grew with the demands of the tremendous responsibilities 
placed upon him, and the reputation he won as patriot, statesman, and leader 
has been surpassed by no previous President and becomes greater with the jjassiug 
years. 

MAJOR ANDERSON AND FORT SUMTER. 

All eyes were turned toward Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor. It was 
the strongest of the defenses. Major Robert Anderson, learning that the Con- 
federates intended to take possession I 
of it, secretly removed his garri^'on 
from Fort Moulti-ie on the night of 
December 26, 1860. Anderson was 
in a trying position, for the secretary 
of war, Floyd, and the adjutant- 
general of the army. Cooper, to 
whom he was obliged to report, were 
secessionists, and not only refused to 
give him help, but threw every ob- 
stacle in his way. President Bu- 
chanan was surrounded by secession- 
ists, and most of the time was be- 
wildei-ed as to his course of duty. 
He resented, however, the demand 
of Secretary Floyd for the removal 
of Anderson because of the change 
he had made from Moultrie to Sum- 
ter. Floyd resigned and was suc- 
ceeded by Josejjh Holt, of Kentucky, 
an uncom23romising Unionist, who 
did all he could to hold up the Presi- 
dent in his tottering position of a friend of the Union. The latter grew 
stronger as he noted the awakening sentiment of loyalty throughout the North. 
An admirable act was the appointment of Edwin M. Stanton as attorney-general, 
for he was a man of great ability and a relentless enemy of secession. 




JEFFEK80N DAVIS. 



JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

Jefferson Davis, who had been chosen President of the Southern Confederacy 
that was formed at Montgomery, Alabama, early in February, was born in Ken- 
tucky, June 3, 1808. Thus he and President Lincoln were natives of the same 



288 ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 

State, witli less than a year's difference in their ages. Davis was graduated at 
West Point in 1828, and served on the northwest frontier, in the Black Hawk 
War. He was also a lieutenant of cavalry in the operations against the Co- 
manches and Apaches. He resigned from the army and became a cotton-planter 
in Mississippi, which State he rej^resented in Congress in 1845-46, but resigned 
to assume the colonelcy of the First Mississippi regiment. 

Colonel Davis displayed great gallantry at the storming of Monterey and 
at the battle at Buena Vista, and on his return home was immediately elected to 
the United States Senate, in which he served 1847-51 and 1857-61. From 1853 
to 1857 he was secretary of war under Pierce. He was one of the Southern 
leaders, and had already been mentioned as a candidate for the presidency. 
He resigned his seat in the United States Senate in January, 1861, upon the 
secession of his State, and, being elected Provisional President of the Southern 
Confederacy February 9th, was inaugurated February 18th. In the following 
year he and Stephens were regularly elected President and Vice-President 
respectively, and were inaugurated on the 18th of the month. 

INAUGURATION OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

President-elect Lincoln left his home in Springfield, Illinois, on the 11th 
of February for Washington. He stopped at various points on the route, and 
addressed multitudes that had gathered to see and hear him. A plot was 
formed to assassinate him in Baltimore, but it was defeated by the vigilance of 
the officers attending Lincoln, who took him through the city on an earlier train 
than was exj^ected. General Scott had the capital so well protected by troops 
that no disturbance took place during the inauguration. 

BOMBARDMENT OF FORT SUMTER. 

, The Confederate government sent General Beauregard to assume charge of 
the defenses in Charleston harbor. Finding the fort was being furnished with 
supplies, he telegraphed to his government for instructions. He was ordered to 
enforce the evacuation. Beauregard demanded the surrender of the fort, and, 
being refused by Major Anderson, he opened fire, early on the morning of April 
12th, from nineteen batteries. Major Anderson had a gar-ison of 79 soldiers 
and 30 laborers who helped serve the guns. He allowed tne men to eat break- 
fest before replying. In a few hours the supply of cartridges gave out, and 
blankets and other material were used as substitutes. The garrison were kept 
within the bomb-proof galleries, and did not serve the guns on the open para- 
pets, two of which had been dismounted by the fire from the Confederate 
batteries, which after a time set fire to the officers' barracks. The flames were 
extinguished, but broke out several times. The smoke became so smothering 



ml 



UNION TROOPS ATTACKED IN BALTIMORE. 



289 



that the men could breathe only by lying flat on their faces. Finally the posi- 
tion became so imteaable that Anderson ran up the white flag in token of 
surrender. No one was killed on either side. 

The news of the surrender created wild excitement North and South and 
united both sections. While the free States rallied to the Union, almost as one 
man, the Unionists in the South became ardent supporters of the cause of dis- 
union. It was now a solid North against a solid South. 

Three days after the surrender of Fort Sumter, President Lincoln called 




FORT MOTJLTKIE, CHAHLESTON, WITH FOBT SUMTER IN THE DISTANCE. 

for 75,000 volunteers to serve for three months, and Congress was summoned to 
meet on the 4th of July. Few peoj^le comprehended the stupendous work that 
would be required to crush the rebellion. "While the South was hurrying its 
sons into the ranks, 300,000 answered the call of President Lincoln, who on the 
19th of April issued another proclamation declaring a blockade of the Southern 
ports. 

UNION TROOPS ATTACKED IN BALTIMORE. 

Many of the Confederates demanded that an advance should be made upon 

19 



290 ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 

Washington, and, had it been done promptly, it could have been captured without 
difficulty. Realizing its danger, the national government called upon the States 
for troops and several regiments were hurried thither. While the Seventh 
Pennsylvania and Sixth Massachusetts were passing through Baltimore, they 
wei-e savagely assailed by a mob. A portion of the Sixth Massachusetts were 
hemmed in, and stoned and pelted with pistol-shots. They remained cool 
until three of their number had been killed and eight wounded, when they let 
fly with a volley which stretched nearly a dozen rioters on the ground, besides 
wounding many others. This drove the mob back, although they kept up a 
fusillade until the train drew out of the city with the troops aboard. 

ACTIVITY OF THE CONFEDERATES. 

The Confederates in Virginia continued active. They captured Harper's 
Ferry and the Norfolk Navy Yard, both of which proved very valuable to them. 
Their government issued " letters of marque " which permitted private jiersons 
to capture merchant vessels belonging to the United States, against which the 
Confederate Congress declared war. 

The border States were in perhaps the most trying situation of all, for, 
while they wished to keep out of the war, they were forced to act the part of 
buffer between the hostile States. The secessionists in Maryland, Kentucky, 
and Missouri made determined eflTorts to bring about the secession of those 
States, Init the Union men were too strong. The armies on both sides received 
many recruits from the States named, which in some cases suffered from guer- 
rilla fighting between former friends and neighbors. 

Kentucky, whose governor was a secessionist, thought she could hold a 
neutral position, but the majority of the citizens were Union in their sentiments. 
Besides, the situation of the State was such that it was soon invaded by armed 
forces from both sides, and some of the severest battles of the war were fought 
on its soil. 

THE WAR AS VIEWED IN EUROPE. 

The prospect of the splitting apart of the United States was pleasing to all 
the European powers, with the single exception of Russia. France was 
especially urgent in favoring an armed intervention in favor of the Confederacy, 
but England would not agree, nor would she recognize the Confederate States 
as an independent nation, for, had she done so, the United States would immedi- 
ately have declared war against her. In May, however, England declared the 
Confederacy a belligerent power, thereby entitling it to make war and man war 
vessels, which could take refuge in foreign ports. While this recognition was 
of unquestionable help, it would not have amounted to a great deal had not 
England permitted the building of swift and powerful cruisers, which were 



THE MILITARY SITUATION. 



291 



turned over to the Confederates, and did immense damage to Northern com- 
merce. 

When June arrived, the Southern Confederacy was composed of eleven 
States : South Carolina, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, 
Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. As soon as Virginia 
seceded (May 23d), the capital was removed from Montgomery to Richmond. 
It was clear that Virginia would be the principal battle-ground of the war, 
and the Confederate volunteers throughout the South hurried into the 
State. 

An intelligent knowledge of the direction from which danger was likely to 
come was shown by the placing of troops in western Virginia to meet Confederate 
attacks, while soldiers were moved into southern Kentucky to defend Ten- 
nessee. In Virginia they held 
the line from Harper's Ferry to 
Norfolk, and batteries were built 
along the Mississippi to stop all 
navigation of that stream. The 
erection of forts along the At- 
lantic and Gulf coasts for pro- 
tection against the blockading 
fleets soon walled in the Confed- 
eracy on every hand. 

THE MILITARY SITUATION, 

General Scott for a time 
held the general command of all 
the United States forces. But he 
was old and growing weak in 
body and mind, and it was evi- 
dent must soon give way to a 
younger man. The national forces held the eastern side of the Potomac, from 
Harper's Ferry to Fort Monroe, and a small section of the western side oppo- 
site Washington. While enlisting and drilling troops, they strove to hold also 
Kentucky and Missouri, succeeding so well that it jjroved a ditficult task to 
loosen their grip. 

With the opposing forces face to face, continual skirmishing was kept up. 
This had no effect on the war itself, but was expressive of the martial spirit 
whicli animated both sides. General B. F. Butler, who had great executive but 
slight military ability, was in command at Fort Monroe. While there he 
refused to surrender a number of fugitive slaves that had fled into his lines, 




A SKIBMISHEB. 



292 ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 

declaring them " contraband of war." The phrase was a happy one and caught 
the fancy of the North. 

UNION DISASTER AT BIG BETHEL. 

Butler fortified Newport News, which is a point of land at the junction of 
the James River and Hampton Roads. Fifteen miles away was a Confederate 
detachment, on the road to Yorktown, where the main body was under the 
command of General J. B. Magruder, a former artillery officer of the United 
States army. The Confederate j^osition at Big Bethel was a strong one and had 
a garrison of more than a thousand troops. A short distance in front was 
Little Bethel, where a small detachment was under the command of Colonel D. 
H. Hill, also a former member of the United States army. 

General Pierce advanced to the attack early on the morning of June 9th. 
The two columns mistook each other, and not until 10 men were killed was the 
sad blunder discovered. An assault quickly followed, but the assailants were 
defeated with the loss of 14 killed and 49 wounded. Among the slain was 
Lieutenant John T. Greble, a brilliant West Point officer, who ought to have 
been in command of the brigade, with which he doubtless would have achieved 
a success. The incompetency of the political leader cost dearly, but the govern- 
ment was yet to learn that full-fledged officers are not to be found among men 
who have made politics their life profession. 

SUCCESSFUL UNION CAMPAIGN IN WESTERN VIRGINIA. 

The only place where there were any Union successes was in western Vir- 
ginia. Colonel Wallace with a detachment of Indiana Zouaves — a favorite form 
of military troops at the beginning of the war — made a forced march at night 
over a mountain road from Cumberland, in Maryland, to Romney, where the 
Confederates had a battery on a bluff near the village, guarded by a number of 
field-pieces. By a spirited dash, the Union troops captured the position and 
drove the defenders into the woods. Unable to overtake them, Colonel Wallace 
returned to Cumberland. 

This incident had important results. General Jo Johnston, one of the 
best commanders of the war, was at Harper's Ferry, and, fearing for his com- 
munications, he evacuated the post and marched up the Shenandoah Valley to 
a point near Winchester. 

GENERAL m'cLELLAN. 

The operations in western Virginia brought into prominence an officer 
who was destined to play an important part in the war. He was George B. 
McClellan, born in Philadelphia in 1826, and graduated at West Point in 1846. 
He rendered fine service in the Mexican War, after which, resigning from the 
array, he was for several years engineer for the Illinois Central Railroad and 



GENERAL 3TcCLELLAN 



293 



afterward a railroad president. He was appointed a major-general at the open- 
ing of the Civil War, and, with 15,000 troops, mostly from the Western States, 
he advanced against the Confederates in western Virginia under the command 
of General Garnett, also a graduate and formerly an instructor at West Point. 
Garnett held a position west of the principal line of the Alleghanies, which 
covered the road leading from Philippi to Beverly. Colonel Pegram was placed 
in charge of the hill Rich Mountain, a short distance south of Garnett. 

McClellan advanced against these two positions. Colonel Rosecrans, withfow 
regiments and in the face of a blind- 
ing rain-storm, followed a circuitous 
path through the woods, and charged 
up the elevation against a strong 
fire. The Confederates were driven 
from their position and down the 
other side of the hill. Colonel Peg- 
ram, finding his position turned, re- 
treated in the direction of Beverly. 
Rosecrans pursued and Garnett 
turned to the north, aiming for St. 
George on the Cheat River. Pegram 
had surrendered with 600 men, the 
remainder joining Garnett, who was 
hard pressed by General Morris. 
Despite the obstructions thrown in 
his path, he overtook the fugitives 
on the loth of July at Carrick's 
Ford on the Cheat River. There 
the Confederates were routed and 
Garnett shot dead at the head of 
his troops. The remnant of his 
force fled in disorder, and succeeded in reaching Monterey on the eastern side 
of the mountains. 

The campaign in western Virginia was a brilliant Union success. A thou- 
sand prisoners, seven guns, 1,500 stands of arms, and twelve colors were captured, 
with slight loss to the victors. All the credit of this success was given to Mc- 
Clellan, and, since the North was yearning for some leader with the halo of suc- 
cess attached to his name, they at once proclaimed " Little Mac " as their idol, 
destined to crush secession and re-establish the Union in all its strength and 
former glory. 

In September General Robert E. Lee was sent into western Virginia to 




GENBBAIj GEOKGE B. MoCLELLAN. 

(18.6-1886). 



294 ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 

regain the ground lost, but he failed and was driven out of the section by Rose- 
crans, the successor of McClellan, Before this took place, however, the opening 
battle of the war had been fought elsewhere. 

" ON TO EICHMOND ! " 

The removal of the Confederate government from Montgomery to Richmond 
was unbearably exasperating to the North. It may be said that the secession flag 
was flaunted in sight of Washington. The New York Tribune, the most influ- 
ential journal of the North, raised the cry "0« to Richmond, V and the pressure 
became so clamorous and persistent that the government, although conscious of 
the risk of the step, ordered an advance against the Confederate capital. Con- 
gress, which had met July 4th, approjiriated $500,000,000 for carrying on the 
war, and authorized President Lincoln to call out 500,000 volunteers for crushing 
the rebellion. 

The Union army across the Potomac from Washington numbered about 
40,000 men and was under the command of General Irvin McDowell. It was 
only partly disciplined, had a few good and many incompetent ofiicers, was com- 
posed of fine material, but of necessity lacked the steadiness which can only be 
acquired by actual campaigns and fighting. 

General Beauregard, with a Confederate army not quite so numerous, held 
a strong military position near Manassas Junction, some thirty miles from Wash- 
ington, and connected with Richmond by rail. General Jo Johnston had a 
smaller Confederate army at Winchester, it being his duty to hold General 
Patterson in check and prevent his reinforcing McDowell. At the same time 
Patterson, to prevent Johnston from .joining Beauregard, planned an offensive 
movement against the Confederate commander at Winchester. 

THE FIRST BATTLE OF BULL BUN. 

McDowell's plan was to advance to Fairfax Court-House, and then, turning 
south, cut Beauregard's communications. The first movement was made on the 
afternoon of July 16th. General Mansfield with 16,000 men remained in 
Washington to protect the capital from surprise. The advance was slow, occupy- 
ing several days. McDowell discovered six Confederate brigades posted along the 
creek known as Bull Run, and he decided to begin his attack upon them. While 
General Tyler was sent across the stone bridge to threaten the Confederate front. 
Hunter and Heintzehnan were directed to make a detour and attack the enemy's 
front and rear. Johnston, who had hurried up from Winchester, had decided to 
hasten the battle through fear of the arrival of Patterson with reinforcements 
for McDowell, but the latter, moving first, Johnston was compelled to act on the 
defensive. 



I 



1 



THE FIRST BATTLE OF BULL BUN. 



295 



Tyler and Hunter were tardy in their movements, but by noon McDowell 
had turned tlie Confetlerate left and uncovered tlie stoue bridge. In.'itead of 
using the advantage thus secured and assuming position at Manassas depot, he 
ke2)t up his pursuit of the fleeing Confederates to the woods. There, when 
everything seemed to be going the way of the Union army, it was checked by 
General T. J. Jackson's brigade, whose firm stand in the face of seeming dis- 
aster won for him the soubriquet of " Stonewall " Jackson, flrst uttered in com- 
pliment by Gen- 
e r a 1 Bee, by 
which name the 
remarkable man 
will always be 
remembered. 

The stand of 
Jackson enabled 
Johnston to rally 
the right and 
Beauregard the 
left, but matters 
were in a critical 
shape, when Kir- 
by Smith, wlio 
had escajjed Pat- 
terson in the val- 
ley, rushed across 
the fields from 
Manassas with 
15,000 fresh 
troops. T h i s| 
timely arrival 
turned the for- 
tunes of the day. 
McDowell was 

driven from the plateau he had occupied, and the whole Union army was thrown 
into a panic and rushed in headlong flight for the defenses of Washington. 
Nothing could stay their flight, and the city was overrun with the terrified fugi- 
tives, who swarmed into the railroad trains, fled to the open fields beyond, 
spreading the most frightful rumors, while many did not believe themselves safe 
until at home in the North. 

Had the Confederates followed up the pursuit, they could have easily cap- 




STATUE OF MoCIiELLAN IN CITY HALL SQUARE, PHILADEL- 
PHIA. 



296 ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 

tured Washington, They failed to do so, because they did not know how beaten 
and disorganized the Union forces were. The Union losses in this first greai 
battle of the war were : Killed, 470 ; wounded, 1,071 ; captured and missing, 
1,793 ; total, 3,334. The Confederate losses were : Killed, 387 ; wounded, 
1,582 ; captured and missing, 13 ; total, 1,982. 

GENERAL m'cLELLAN APPOINTED TO THE COMMAND OF THE AKMY OF THE 

POTOMAC. 

Bull Run was a bitter humiliation for the North, but it served a good pur- 
pose. The national government understood for the first time the formidable 
nature of the task before it. Its determination to subdue the rebellion was 
intensified rather than lessened, but it now went about it in the right way. 
Incompetent ofiicers were weeded out, careful and vigorous measures set on foot, 
and, what was the most j^opular movement of all. General McClellan was called 
to the command of the Army of the Potomac. He took charge August 20th, 
and set about organizing and disciplining the magnificent body of men. No 
one could surpass him at such work, and he had the opportunity of establishing 
himself as the idol of the nation. That he failed to do so was due to an inherent 
defect of his nature. He shrank from taking chances, lacked nerve and dash, 
distrusted himself, and was so slow and excessively cautious that he wore out 
the patience of the government and finally of the nation itself 

General Scott's old age and increasing infirmities compelled him in Novem- 
ber to give up the command of the Union armies, and all hopes centred upon 
McClellan. He kept drilling the Army of the Potomac, and by the close of 
the year had 150,000 well-trained soldiers under his command. The impatience 
of the North began to manifest itself, but no general advance took place, though 
the Confederate line was gradually pushed back from its threatening position 
in front of Washington to its first position at Bull Run. The Confederacy was 
also busy in recruiting and drilling its forces. Knowing that Richmond was 
the objective point of the Union advance, the city was surrounded with formid- 
able fortifications. 

DISASTER AT BALL's BLUFF. 

- On the 19th of October General McCall was ordered to occupy Draines- 
ville, eighteen miles northwest of Washington. At the same time, General 
Stone was directed to keep watch of Leesburg, from which the patrols afterward 
reported a weak Confederate force. An advance was ordered, whereupon Col- 
onel Evans, who had given the Confederates great help at Bull Run, concen- 
trated his forces on the road leading from Leesburg to Washington, and, on the 
morning of the 21st, had assumed a strong position and was ready to be 
attacked. 



DISASTER AT BALL'S BLUFF. 



297 



The Union trooi^s were'ferried across the river in three scows, two skiffs, 
and a life-boat, which combined would not carry one-fourth of the men. When 
all were over they advanced to Leesburg, where no Confederate camp was found, 



<^- 



,i»>ss— 




FORTIFYING RICHMOND. 

In the foreground we see R. E. Lee and two other Confederate officers directing the work. 

but the enemy in the woods attacked them. Colonel E. D. Baker, a civilian 
officer from California, hurried across the river with 1,900 men and took com- 
mand. The enemy was reinforced and drove the Unionists back. Colonel 



298 ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 

Baker was killed and the Federals fled in a i^anic to the Potomac, with the Con- 
federates upon them. The fugitives swarmed into the boats and sank three of 
them ; others leaped over the bank and swam and dived for their lives, the 
enemy shooting and bayoneting all who did not surrender. When the horrible 
affair was over, the Union loss was fully a thousand men. This occurrence was 
in some respects more disgraceful than Bull Run. 

MILITAEY OPERATIONS IN MISSOURI. 

Claiborne F. Jackson, governor of Missouri, was a strong secessionist, and 
did all he could to take the State out of the Union, but the sentiment against 
him was too strong. St. Louis was also secession in feeling, but Captain 
Nathaniel Lyon kept the disloyalists in subjection so effectively that he was 
rewarded by being made a brigadier-general. Governor Jackson by proclama- 
tion called out 50,000 of the State militia to repel the "invasion" of the State 
by United States troops. Sterling Price, a major-general of the State forces, 
was dispatched to Booneville and Lexington, on the Missouri River. 

Colonel Franz Sigel, with 1,100 Union troops, had an engagement in the 
southwestern part of the State and was compelled to retreat, but he managed 
his withdrawal so skillfully that he killed and wounded a large number of his 
pursuers. General Lyon joined Sigel near Springfield, and the Confederates, 
under General Ben McCuUoch, retreated to Cowskin Prairie, on the border of 
the Indian Territory. 

BATTLE OF WILSON'S CREEK. 

Both sides were reinforced, the Unionists being under the command of 
General John C. Fremont, who had been assigned to the department of the 
West, which included Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, and Kansas. The two 
armies met early in August near Wilson's Creek. The Confederates were the 
most numerous, but were poorly armed and disciplined. The battle was badly 
mismanaged by both sides, and General Lyon, while leading a charge, was shot 
dead. His men were defeated and retreated in the direction of Springfield. 

Missouri was now overrun with guerrillas and harried by both sides. 
Colonel Mulligan made a desperate stand at Lexington in September, but au 
overwhelming force under General Price compelled him to surrender. Price 
moved southward and Lexington was retaken by the Unionists, who also occupied 
Springfield. The Legislature sitting at Neocho passed an ordinance of secession, 
but most of the State remained in the hands of the Federals until they 
finally gained entire possession. 

General Fremont's course was unwise and made him unpopular. He issued 
what was in reality an emancipation proclamation, which President Lincoln was 
compelled to modify. He was fond of show and ceremony, and so extravagant 



THE TRENT AFFAIR. 29-) 

that he was superseded in November by General Hunter, who was soon sent to 
Kansas, and was in turn succeeded by General Halleck. The fighting in the 
State was fierce but of an indecisive character. 

The expected neutrality of Kentucky was speedily ended by the entrance 
of a body of Confederates under the command of General Leonidas Polk, a 
graduate of West Point and a bishop of the Episcopal Church. General U. 
S. Grant was dispatched with a force from Cairo, as soon as it became known 
that Polk had entered Kentucky. Grant destroyed a Confederate camp at Bel- 
mont, but was attacked by Polk and compelled to retreat to his gunboats. 

OPERATIONS ON THE COAST. 

A formidable coast expedition, with land and naval forces on board, under 
command of General B. F. Butler and Commodore Stringham, in August, 1861, 
captured Hatteras Inlet and the fort defending it. Establishing themselves at 
that point, they made other attacks along the adjoining coast of North Carolina. 
A still larger expedition left Fort Monroe in November under Commodore 
Dupont and General T. W. Sherman and captured Port Royal. The fleet was 
so powerful, numbering nearly one hundred vessels and transports, that the 
garrisons wei'e easily driven out of the forts, after which the land forces took 
possession of them. The islands between Charleston and Savannah were seized, 
and in September a Union fleet took j^ossession of Ship Island, not far from 
the mouth of the Mississippi, with a view of aiding an expedition against New 
Orleans. 

THE TRENT AFFAIR. 

It was all important for the Confederacy to secure recognition from Eng- 
land and France. The Confederate government thought they could be induced 
to act, if the proper arguments were laid before the respective governments. 
Accordingly, James M. Mason, of Virginia, and John Slidell, of Louisiana, 
both of whom had been United States senators, were appointed commissioners, 
the former to England and the latter to France. 

They succeeded in running the blockade to Havana, where they took pas- 
sage on the British steamer Trent for England. Captain Charles Wilkes, of 
the steamer Sa7i Jacinto, knew of their intended sailing and was on the lookout 
for them. Before they were fairly on their way, Captain Wilkes stopped the 
Trent, and, despite the protests of the captain and the rebel commissioners, he 
forcibly took them ofi" and carried them to the United States. 

In acting thus Captain Wilkes did the very thing that caused the war with 
England in 1812. It was our opposition to the search of American vessels by 
British cruisers that caused that war, while England was as persistent in her 
claim to the right to make such search. The positions were now reversed, and 



300 ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 

England expressed indignation, and demanded the return of the commissioners 
and a disavowal of the act of Captain Wilkes. The position of our govern- 
ment was untenable, and Secretary Seward gracefully confessed it, and surren- 
dered the prisoners, neither of whom was able afterward to be of the slightest 
benefit to the Confederacy. 

SUMMARY OF THE TEAr's OPERATIONS. 

The close of 1861 was to the advantage of the Confederates. The two 
real battles of the war — Bull Run and Wilson's Creek — had been won by 
them. In the lesser engagements, with the exception of West Virginia, they 
had also been successful. This was due to the fact that the peoj^le of the North 
and West had been so long at peace that they needed time in which to learn 
war. In the South the men were more accustomed to the handling of firearms 
and horseback riding. Moreover, they were on the defensive, and fighting, as 
may be said, on inner lines. 

It must not be forgotten, however, that the Union forces had saved Ken- 
tucky, Maryland, and Missouri from joining the Confederacy, despite the 
strenuous efibrts of their disunion governors and an aggressive minority in each 
State. Washington, which more than once had been in danger of capture, was 
made safe, and the loyal section of Virginia in the West was cut off and formed 
into a separate State. In wealth and resources the North vastly preponderated. 
An immense army had been raised, money was abundant, commerce thriving, 
the sentiment overwhelmingly in favor of the prosecution of the war, and the 
manufactories hummed witli work made necessary by the building of hundreds 
of shijjs for the navy and the furnishing of supplies and equipments to the 
armies. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

ADNIINISTRATION OK LINCOLN (CONTINUED), 

1861-1865. 

WAR FOR THE UNION (CONTINUED), 1862. 

Capture of Forts Henry and Donelson — Change in the Confederate Line of Defense — Capture of Islana 
No. 10 — Battle of Pittsburg Landing or Shiloh — Capture of Corinth — Narrow Escape of Louisville 
— Battle of Perry ville — Battle of Murfreesboro' or Stone River — Battle of Pea Ridge — Naval Battle 
Between the Monitor and Merrimac — Fate of the Two Vessels — Capture of New Orleans — The Advance 
Against Richmond — !McClellan's Peninsula Campaign— T/ifl First Confederate Invasion of the North 
— Battle of Aniictam or Sharpsburg — Disastrous Union Repulse at Fredericksburg — Summary of 
the War's Operations — The Confederate Privateers— The Emancipation Proclamation — Greenbacks 
and Bond Issues. 

CAPTURE OF FORTS HENRY AND DONELSON. 

The fighting of the second year of the war opened early. General Albert 
Sidney Johnston, one of the ablest leaders of the Confederacy, was in chief 
command in the West. The Confederate line ran through southern Kentucky, 
from Columbus to Mill Spring, through Bowling Green. Two powerful forts 
had been built in Tennessee, near the northern boundary line. One was Fort 
Henry on the Tennessee River, and the other Fort Donelson, twelve miles away, 
on the Cumberland. 

Opposed to this strong position were two Union armies, the larger, number- 
ing 100,000, under General Don Carlos Buell, in central Kentucky, and the 
lesser, numbering 15,000, commanded by General U. S. Grant, at Cairo. Under 
Buell was General George H. Thomas, one of the finest leaders in the Union 
army. In January, with a division of Buell's army, he attacked the Confeder- 
ates, routed and drove them into Tennessee. In the battle, General Zollicoffer, 
the Confederate commander, was killed. 

Embarking at Cairo, General Grant steamed up the Tennessee River, in- 
tending to capture Fort Henry. Before he could do so, Commodore Andrew H. 
Foote, with his fleet of gunboats, compelled it to surrender, though most of the 
garrison escaped across the neck of land to Fort Donelson. 

CAPTURE OF FORT DONELSON. 

Upon learning that Fort Henry had fallen. Grant steamed up the Cumber- 
land to attack Fort Donelson, which was reinforced until the garrison numbered 

(301) 



302 



ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 



some 20,000 men. It was a powerful fortification, with many rifle-pits and 
intrench ments on the land side, and powerful batteries commanding the river. 
The political General Floyd was in chief command, the right wing being under 
General Simon B. Buckner and the left in charge of General Gideon J. Pillow. 

On the afternoon of February 14th, Commodore Foote opened the attack 
with two wooden vessels and four iron-clad gunboats. The garrison made no 
reply until the boats had worked their way to within a fourth of a mile of the fort, 
the elevation of which enabled it to send a plunging fire, which proved so de- 
structive that two of the boats were disabled and drifted down current, the other 
following. Some fifty men were killed, and among the wounded was Commodore 
Foote. He withdrew to Cairo, intending to wait until a sufficient force could 
be brought up from that 
point. 

But General Grant, 
like the bull-dog to which 
he was often compared, 
having inserted his teeth 
in his adversary, did not 




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• ■^•'~ —. .™ •• •* 



UNITED STATES 12-INCH BKEECH-LOADING MOHTAE, OH HOWITZER. 



mean to let go. Placing his troops in front of the works, it did not take him 
long to invest the whole Confederate left, with the exception of a swampy strip 
near the river. The weather, which had been unusually mild for the season, 
now became extremely cold, and some of the Union men were frozen to death 
in the trenches. The garrison also suffered greatly, but the siege was pressed 
with untiring vigor. Seeing the inextricable coils closing round them, the 
defenders made an attempt to cut their way out, but Grant with true military 
genius saw the crisis and ordered an advance along the whole line, the gun- 
boats giving all the help they could. 

The situation of the garrison was so dangerous that a council of war was 
held that night. Floyd and Pillow were frightened nearly out of their wits. 
They rated themselves so high as prizes for the Federals that they determined 



CAPTURE OF ISLAND NUMBER 10. 303 

to make their escape before the surrender, which was inevitable, was forced. 
Buckner was another sort of man. Disgusted with the cowardice of his asso- 
ciates, he quietly announced that he would stay by his men to the last. Floyd 
stole out of the fort with his brigade and crossed the river in boats, while Pillow 
followed in a scow, a large number of the cavalry galloping by the lower road 
to Nashville. 

Grant was ready for the assault at daylight the' next morning, when he 
received a note from General Buckner proposing an armistice until noon in 
order to arrange terms of capitulation. Grant's reply became famous : " No 
terms except immediate and unconditional surrender can be accepted ; I pro- 
pose to move immediately upon your works." Buckner was disajJiJointed, but 
he had no choice except to submit. He was greatly relieved to find that his 
conqueror was a chivalrous man, who granted better terms than he expected. 
The priva es were allowed to retain their personal baggage and the officers their 
side-arms. The number of prisoners was 15,000, and the blow was the first 
really severe one that the South had received. As may be supposed, the news 
caused great rejoicing in the North and was the beginning of Grant's fame as a 
military leader — a fame which steadily grew and expanded with the progress of 
the war. 

Jefferson Davis saw the mistake he had made in intrusting important inter- 
ests to political generals. He deprived Floyd of his command, and that officer 
dropped back to the level from which he never ought to have been raised. 
Pillow had done some good work in the Mexican War, but he was erratic and 
unreliable, and he, too, was summarily snuffed out. Buckner, a West Point 
graduate, upon being exchanged soon afterward, was assigned to an important 
command and proved himself an excellent soldier. 

CHANGE IN THE CONFEDERATE LINE OF DEFENSE. 

The capture of Forts Henry and Donelson compelled a change in the 
Confederate line of defense. General Albert Sidney Johnston withdrew from 
Bowling Green to Nashville, but fell back again upon learning of the fall of 
Fort Donelson, and assumed position near Murfreesboro', Tennessee. All the 
northern part of that State, including the Cumberland River, was given up by 
the Confederates, and, when the new line was established, the centre was held 
by Beauregard at Jackson, the left by Polk at New Madrid, and the right by 
Johnston at Murfreesboro'. Thus the Confederates were driven out of Ken- 
tucky and the northern part of Tennessee. It was a serious check for the Con- 
federacy. 

CAPTURE OF ISLAND NO. 10. 

General Grant gave the enemy no rest. In order to retain possession of 



304 AmilNISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 

Island No. 10, it was necessary for them to hold the outpost of New Madrid, 
In the latter part of February, General Pope led an expedition against that 
place, while Commodore Foote made a demonstration in front with hLu gunboats. 
Through cold and storm the Unionists bravely pushed their way, and the gar- 
rison of New Madrid were compelled to take refuge on Island No. 10, and in 
the works on the Kentucky side of the river. Operations were then begun 
against Island No. 10. By digging a canal twelve miles long, which permitted 
the gunboats to pass around the defenses, and by energetic operations in all 
directions, the Confederate position was rendered untenable, and the post, with a 
large amount of war material, was surrendered to Commodore Foote. 

Meanwhile, General Grant, after the occupation of Nashville, went down 
the Tennessee River to Pittsburg Landing, while General Buell, with the other 
portion of the Union army, started for the same point by land. Aware of this 
division of the Federal forces. General Albert Sidney Johnston hastily concen- 
trated his own divisions with the intention of crushing the two Union armies 
before they could unite. "When Johnston arrived in the vicinity of Pittsburg 
Landing on the 3d of April he had 40,000 men, divided into three coi-ps 
and a reserve. 

BATTLE OF PITTSBURG LANDING. 

Pittsburg Landing, or Shiloh, as it is called in the South, consists of a 
high bluff", a half-mile in extent, where General W. T. Sherman had been 
ordered to take position and jjrepare for the arrival of 100,000 men. Grant was 
not prepared for the unexpected attack. Buell was some distance away with 
40,000 troops, and the Union commander had a somewhat less force on his side 
of the Tennessee River. Only a few defenses had been thrown up, and the 
men were scattered over the ground, when at daylight on Sunday morning, 
April 6th, the Confederates furiously assailed the outlying divisions of the Union 
army and drove them back upon the main body. They steadily gained ground, 
and it looked as if nothing could save the Union army from overwhelming 
disaster. 

When the attack was made Grant was on the opposite side of the river in 
consultation with Buell. Hurrying to the scene of the furious conflict, it looked 
as if his army was on the edge of inevitable destruction, but he handled his 
demoralized forces with such masterly skill that the panic was checked, and on 
the river bank, over which they had been well-nigh driven, an effective stand 
was made and the Confederates were checked, the gunboats giving invaluable 
assistance in saving the army from defeat. The night closed with all the 
advantage on the side of the Confederates. 

The darkness, however, was of immeasurable value to the Federals. 
Buell's army was brought across the river and other reinforcements arrived, so 



EVACUATION OF CORINTH. 



805 



tliat in the morning Grant found himself in command of fully 50,000 well- 
equipped troops. The greatest advantage gained by the Federals, however, came 
during the previous day's fighting, when everything was going the way of their 
enemies. General Albert Sidney Johnston, while directing operations, waa 
struck by a shot which shattered his knee and mortally wounded him. He 
spoke only a few words as he was lifted from his horse, and the command 
devolved upon Beauregard, much his inferior in ability. He was unable to 
restrain the troops from plundering the captured Union camjas; and when on 
the second day Grant launched his regiments against them, they were driven 










A BAILBOAD BATTERY. 



pellmell from the field, and did not stop their retreat until they reached Corinth, 
Mississippi. 

Little fear of the Union troops being caught a second time at such a dis- 
advantage. They were established on the upper part of the Tennessee, prepared 
to strike blows in any direction. 



EVACUATION OF CORINTH. 

The withdrawal of Beauregard to Corinth made that point valuable to the 
Unionists, because of the large number of railroads which centre there. It waa 

20 



306 ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 

strongly fortified, and no one expected its capture without a severe battle. 
General Halleck, wlio was high in favor with the government, assumed com- 
mand of the Union armies and began an advance upon Corinth. He moved 
slowly and with great caution, and did not reach the front of the place until 
the close of May. While making preparations to attack, Beauregard withdrew 
and retired still further southward. No further Union advance was made for 
some tine. The important result accomplished was in opening up the Missis- 
sippi from Cairo to Memphis and extending the Union line so that it passed 
along the southern boundary of Tennessee. 

Beauregard resembled McClellan in many respects. He was excessively 
cautious and disposed to dig trenches and throw up fortifications rather than 
fight. Jefierson Davis always had a warm regard for General Braxton Bragg, 
whom he now put in the place of Beauregard. By the opening of September, 
Bragg had an army of 60,000 men. Kirby Smith's corps was at Knoxville and 
Hardee and Polk were with Bragg at Chattanooga. 

They were ordered to march through Kentucky to Louisville, threatening 
Cincinnati on the way. Kirby Smith's approach threw that city into a panic, 
but he turned ofi" and joined Bragg at Frankfort. 

A KACE FOR LOUISVILLE. 

By this time the danger of Louisville was apparent, and Buell, who was 
near Nasliville, hastened to the defense of the more important city. Bragg ran 
a race with him, but the burning of a bridge, spanning the river at Bardstown, 
stopped him just long enough to allow Buell to reach Louisville first. This 
was accomplished on the 25th of September, and Buell's army was increafied to 
100,000 men. 

BATTLE OF PERRYVILLE. 

Disappointed in securing the main prize, Bragg marched to Frankfort, 
where he installed a provisional governor of Kentucky and issued a high-sound- 
ing proclamation, to which few paid attention. Bragg had entered one of the 
richest sections of the State, and he secured an enormous amount of supplies 
in the shape of cattle, mules, bacon, and cloth. His presence in the State 
was intolerable to the Union forces, and Buell, finding a strong army under his 
command, set out to attack him. Bragg started to retreat through the Cumber- 
land Mountains on the 1st of October, with Buell in pursuit. A severe but 
indecisive battle was fought at Perryville, and the Confederates succeeded in 
carrying away their immense booty to Chattanooga, while the Union army took 
position at Nashville. 

The government was dissatisfied with the sluggishness of Buell and re- 
placed him with General William S. Rosecrans. He posted a part of his army 



ii 



BATTLE OF PEA RIDGK 307 

at Nashville and the remainder along the line of the Cumberland River. 
Advancing against Bragg, he faced him in front of Murfreesboro', some forty 
miles from Nashville. On the 30th of December brisk firing took place 
between the armies, and when they encamped for the night their fires were ia 
plain sight of each other. 

BATTLE OF MURFREESBORO' OR STONE RIVER. 

The opposing forces were on both sides of Stone River (this battle is gen- 
erally referred to in the South by that name), a short distance to the northwest 
of Murfreesboro'. By a curious coincidence, each of the respective commanders 
formed the same plan of attack, it being to mass his forces on the left and 
crush his enemy's right wing. A terrific engagement lasted all day, and night 
closed without any decisive advantage to either side, though the Confederates 
had succeeded in driving back the Union right upon the left and occupying a 
considerable portion of the field formerly held by the Federals. 

The exhaustion of the armies prevented anything more than skirmishing 
on New Year's day, 1863, but on the afternoon of January 2d the furious 
battle was renewed. Rosecrans ordered an advance of the whole line, and the 
Confederate right wing was broken and the flank so endangered that Bragg was 
compelled to withdraw his entire army. The only way for him to retain Ten- 
nessee was to abandon Murfreesboro'. Accordingly, he retreated to a point 
beyond Duck River, about fifty miles south of Murfreesboro', which was occu- 
pied by the Federals, January 5, 1863. 

Other important events took place in the West. General Sterling Price 
wintered in Springfield, Missouri, in the southern part of the State, and gained 
a good many recruits and a large amount of needed supplies. He was attacked 
by Sigel and Curtis on the 12th of February, and continued his retreat to the 
Boston Mountains, where he was reinforced by McCulloch, Van Dorn, and 
Albert Pike, and felt himself strong enough to turn about and attack Curtis, 
who was in the neighborhood of Pea Ridge. 

BATTLE OF PEA RIDGE. 

The Union right was commanded by General Sigel, the left by General 
Carr, and the centre by General Jefferson C. Davis. Sigel was surprised and 
came very near being cut oflT, but he was master of the art of retreating rather 
than of advancing, and he extricated his Germans with astonishing skill and 
joined the main army. General Curtis changed his front, and in the attack his 
right wing was driven back, obliging him that night to take a new position a 
mile to the rear. The fighting next day was at first in favor of the Confederates, 
and for a time the Union army was in a critical position ; but with great bravery 



308 ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 

and skill the enemy's left was turned, the centre broken, and their forces driven 
in disorder from the field. 

In this battle Albert Pike used 2,000 Indian allies. They belonged to the 
" civilized " tribes, and good service was expected from them ; but they were un- 
accustomed to fighting in the oj^en, could not be disciplined, and in the excite- 
ment of the struggle it is alleged they so lost their heads that they scalped about 
as many of the Confederates as Unionists. At any rate, the experiment was a 
failure, and thereafter they cut no figure in the war. 

INDECISIVE FIGHTING. 

The enemy were so badly shaken that they retreated toward the North 
to reorganize and recruit. Reinforcements from Kansas and Missouri also 
joined Curtis, who advanced in the direction of Springfield, Missouri, upon 
learning that Price was making for the same })oint. Nothing followed, and 
Curtis returned to Arkansas. He had been at Batesville in that State a few 
months when he found himself in serious jieril. His supplies were nearly ex- 
hausted, and it was imi^ossible to renew them in the hostile country by which 
he was surrounded. An expedition for his relief left Memphis in June, but 
failed. Supplies from Missouri, however, reached him early in July. 

Curtis marched to Jacksonport, and afterward established himself at Helena 
on the Mississippi. In September he was appointed commander of the dejaart- 
ment of Missouri, which included that State, Arkansas, and the Indian Terri- 
tory. There were many minor engagements, and the Unionists succeeded in 
keeping the Confederates from regaining their former foothold in Missouri and 
north of Arkansas. It may be said that all the fighting in that section j)ro- 
duced not the slightest effect on the war as a whole. The best military leaders 
of the Confederacy advised President Davis to withdraw all his forces beyond 
the Mississippi and concentrate them in the East, but he rejected their counsel, 
and his stubbornness greatly weakened the Confederacy. 

Having given an account of military operations in the West, it now remains 
to tell of the much more imjiortant ones that occurred on the coast and in the 
East, for they were decisive in their nature, and produced a distinct effect 
upon the progress of the war for the Union. 

CONSTRUCTION OF THE MERRIMAC. 

It has been stated that early in the war the Norfolk navy yard was burned 
to prevent its falling into the possession of the Confederates. Among the 
vessels sunk was the frigate Merrimac, which went down before much injury 
was done to her. She was a formidable craft of 3,500 tons, 300 feet in length, 
and had mounted 40 guns. The Confederates succeeded in raising her, and 



CONSTRUCTION OF THE MERRIMAC. 



309 



proceeded to work marvelous changes in her structure, by which she was turned 
into the first real armor-clad ever constructed. She was protected by layers of 
railroad iron, which sloped like the roof of a house, and was furnished with a 
^prow of east iron which projected four feet in front. Pivot guns were so fixed 
as to be used for bow and stern chasers, and the jjilot-house was placed forward 
of the smoke-stack and armored with four inches of iron. Slie carried ten 
,guns, one at the stern, one at the bow, and eight at the sides, antl fired shells 




SECRETARY STANTON'S OPINION ABOUT THE MERRIMAC. 

" The whole character of the war wiU be changed." 

Her iron armor sloped down at the sides, so that she looked like an enormom 
mansard-roof moving through the water. Her commanding officer was Com- 
modore Franklin Buchanan, formerly of the United States navy, while under 
him were Lieutenant Catesby R. Jones, the executive officer, six other lieuten- 
ants, six midshipmen, surgeons, engineers, and subordinate officers, in addition 
to a crew of 300 men. She was rechristened the Virginia, but will always be 
remembered as the 3Ierrimac. 

Of necessity this craft, being the pioneer of it« kind, had many defects. She 



310 ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 

could move only very slowly, and her great length of 300 feet and poor steering 
apparatus required a half-hour for her to make a complete turn, while her draft 
of 22 feet coutiued her to the narrow channel of the Eoads. Still she could go 
faster than an ordinary sailing vessel, and her resistless momentum and iron 
prow enabled her to crush any vessel afloat as if it were an egg-shell. 

Great pains were taken by the Confederates to keep secret the particulars of 
her build:ng ; but it was known in Washington that a strange craft was in 
course of cojQStruction at Norfolk, with which it was expected to capture Wash- 
ington and devastate the leading cities along the Atlantic seaboard. Ericsson, 
the famous Swedish inventor, was engaged near New York in building a smaller 
vessel upon the same principle, and he was pressed to make all possible haste in 
finishing it ; for, though the government did not suspect the terrible effective- 
ness of the 3Ierrimac, they meant to take all reasonable precautions against it. 

AWFUL WORK OF THE MEKRIMAC. 

There were lying at Hampton Roads at that time five Union vessels, which, 
being so close to the dangerous craft, were on the alert day and night for her 
appearance. About noon on March 8th a column of dark smoke in the direc- 
tion of the Norfolk navy yard, followed by the forging into sight of the huge 
hulk, left no doubt that the long-expected Merrimac was coming forth upon her 
errand of death and destruction. In her company were three gunboats ready 
to aid her in any way possible. The steam frigates 3Iinnesofa and Ilnanol-r and 
the sailing ft-igates Congress, Cumberland, and St. Lawrence immediately cleared 
their decks for action. 

The 3Iinnesota and Roanoke moved out to meet the 3Ierrimac, but both 
got aground. In the case of the 3Iinnesota this was due to the treachery of the 
pilot, who was in the employ of the Confederates. The Cumberland swerved 
so as to bring her broadsides to bear, and opened with her pivot guns, at the 
distance of a mile. The aim was accurate, but the iron balls which struck the 
massive hide of the 3Ierrimac bounded off like pebbles skipping over the water. 
Then the Congress added her broadsides to those of the Cumberland, but the 
leviathan shed them all as if they were tiny hailstones, and, slowly advancing in 
grim silence, finally opened with her guns, quickly killing four marines and 
five sailors on the Cumberland. Then followed her resistless broadsides, which 
played awful havoc with officers and men. Swinging slowly around, the 3Ierri- 
mac next steamed a mile up the James, and, turning again, came back under full 
speed. Striking the Cumberland under the starboard bow, she smashed a hole 
into her through which a horse might have entered. The ship keeled over 
until her yardarms were close to the water. The terrific force broke off the 
prow of the 3Ierrimao, but her frightful shots riddled the Cumberland and set 



THE MONITOR. 311 

her on fire. The flames were extinguished, and the Cumberland delivered 
broadside after broadside, only to see the enormous missiles fly off" and spin 
harmlessly hundreds of feet away. 

Lieutenant George U. Morris, of the Cumberland, ran up the red flag 
meaning " no surrender," and with a heroism never surpassed maintained the 
unequal fight, if fight it can be called where there was absolutely no hope for 
him. Finally the Cumberland went down to her cross-trees, in fifty-four feet of 
water. Lieutenant Morris succeeded in saving himself by swimming, but of 
the crew of 376, 121 lost their lives. 

The Cumberland being destroyed, the 3Ierrimac headed for the Congress, 
which had mn aground. She replied with her harmless broadsides, but the 
Merrimac held her completely at her mercy, raking her fore and aft, and killing 
100 of the crew, including the commander. It being evident that not a man 
could escape, the white fiag was run up in token of surrender. The hot firing 
from the shore preventing Commodore Buchanan from taking possession of the 
Congress, whereujion he fired her with hot shot. 

During the fighting. Commodore Buchanan fearlessly exposed himself on 
the ujDper deck of the Merrimac, and was badly wounded in the thigh by a 
Union sharpshooter, whereupon the command was assumed by Lieutenant Jones. 
By that time it was growing dark and the 3Ierrimac steamed back to Sewall's 
Point, intending to return the next morning and complete her appalling work 
of destruction. 

CONSTERNATION IN THE NORTH. 

The news of what she had done caused consternation throughout the 
North. President Lincoln called a special cabinet meeting, at which Secretary 
Stanton declared, in great excitement, that nothing could prevent the monster 
from steaming up the Potomac, destroying Washington, and laying the prin- 
cipal northern cities under contribution. The alarm of the bluff secretary was 
natural, but there was no real ground for it. 

THE MONITOR. 

The Swedish inventor, John Ericsson, had completed his Monitor, which 
at that hour was steaming southward from New York. Although an iron-clad 
like the Merrimac, she was as different as can be conceived in construction. 
She resembled a raft, the upper portion of which was 172 feet long and the 
lower 124 feet. The sides of the former were made of oak, twenty-five inches 
thick, and covered with five-inch iron armor. 

The turret was protected by eight-inch plates of wrought iron, increasing 
in thickness to the port-holes, near which it was eleven inches through. It 
was nine feet high, with a diameter of twenty-one feet. She drew only ten feet 



312 



ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 



of water, and was armored with two eleven-inch Dahlgren guns, smooth bore, 
firing solid shot weighing 180 jjounds. 

The pilot-house was made of nine-inch plates of forged iron, rose four 
feet above the deck, and would hold three men by crowding. The 3Ionitor was 
one-fifth the size of the Merrimac, and her appearance has been likened to that 
of a cheese-box on a raft. She was in command of Lieutenant John L. Worden, 
with Lieutenant S. Dana Green as executive officer. Her crew consisted of 
sixteen officers and forty-two men, and she left New York on the morning of 

]\Lirch 6th, in tow of a tug-boat. 
The greatest difficulty was en- 
countered in managing her, the 
men narrowly escaping being 
smothered by gas, and, had not 
the weather been unusually favor- 
al)le, she would have foundered ; 
luit providentially she steamed 
into Hampton Roads, undiscov- 
ered by the enemy, and took her 
M)sition behind the Ifmnesofa, 
ready for the events of the mor- 
row. 

The Ilerriviac was promptly 
on time the next morning, and 
was accomjjanied by two gun- 
boats; but while steaming toward 
the remaining Union vessels the 
3/omior darted out from behind 
the Minnesota and boldly advanced 
to meet her terrible antagonist. 
They silently approached each 
other until within a hundred 
yards, when the Monitor fired a shot, to which the Merrimac replied. The 
firing was rapid for a time and then became slower, with the intervening 
space varying from fifty yards to four times that distance. A number of the 
Merrimac's shots struck the Monito7-'s pilot-house and turret, the crash doing no 
harm except almost to deafen the men within. Most of the shells, however, 
missed or skipped over the low deck of the smaller boat. 

The latter was able to dodge the rushes of the larger craft and play all 
around her, but the terrible pounding worked damage to both, the Monitor suf- 
fering the most. The iron plate of the pilot-house was lifted by a shell, which 




JOHN ERICSSON. 

The famous constructor of the Monitor. 



CAPTURE OF NEW ORLEANS. 313 

blinded Lieutenant Worden, and so disabled him that he was forced to turn 
over the command to Lieutenant Green. Worden, who lived to become an 
admiral, never fully recovered from his injuries. The firing, dodging, ramming, 
and fighting continued for four hours, but the Merrimac was unable to disable 
her nimble antagonist, and slowly steamed back to Norfolk, while the Jlonitor 
returned to her former j^osition, and was carefully kept in reserve by the govern- 
ment against future perils of a similar character. 

FATE OF THE MERRIMAC AND MONITOR. 

Neither of the vessels was permitted to do further service. Some months 
later, upon the evacuation of Norfolk, the Merrimac was blown up to prevent 
her falliug into the hands of the Unionists, and the Ilonitor foundered off Hat- 
teras in December, 1862. The battle wrought a complete revolution in naval 
warfare. The days of wooden ships ended, and all the navies of the world are 
now made up mainly of ironclads. 

More important work was done by the Union fleets during this year. The 
government put forth every energy to build ships, with the result that hundreds 
were added to the naval force, many of which were partial and others wholly 
ironclad. 

OTHER COAST OPERATION'S. 

A month before the fight between the Monitor and Merrimac, a formidable 
naval expedition under Commodore Goldsborough and General Ambrose E. 
Burnside passed down the Atlantic coast and captured Roanoke Island. St. 
Augustine and a number of other places in Florida were captured by troops from 
Port Eoyal. Siege was laid to Fort Pulaski, at the mouth of the Savannah 
River, and it surrendered April lltli. The advantage of these and similar cap- 
tures was that it gave the blockading fleets control of the principal harbors, and 
made it easier to enforce a rigid blockade. There were two ports, however, 
which the Union vessels were never able to capture until the close of the war. 
They were Charleston and Wilmington, North Carolina. The latter became 
the chief port from which the Confederate blockade-runners dashed out or en- 
tered and were enabled to bring the most-needed medical and other supplies to 
the Confederacy, while at the same time the owners and officers of the shif)s 
reaped fortunes for themselves. 

CAPTURE OF NEW ORLEANS. 

One of the primal purposes of the war was to open the Mississippi, which 
was locked by the enemy at Vicksburg and New Orleans. As a necessary step 
in the opening of the great river, an expedition was fitted out for the capture 
of New Orleans. Well aware of what was coming, the Confederates had done 



314 ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 

all they could to strengthen the defenses of the city. Thirty miles from the 
mouth of the Mississippi were the powerful Forts Jackson and St. Philip, on op- 
posite sides of the river. They mounted 100 heavy guns, and six powerful 
chains were stretched across, supported by an immense raft of cypress logs. 
Thus the river was closed and no fleet could approach New Orleans until these 
obstructions were removed or overcome. When this should be done, it was still 
seventy-five miles to New Orleans. 

Above the boom of hulks and logs was a fleet of fifteen Confederate ves- 
sels, including the ironclad ram ITanassas, and a partly completed floating bat- 
tery armored with railroad iron, and known as the Louisiana. It has been 
stated that the ironclads of those days were only partly protected by armor. 

The naval and military expedition which sailed for New Orleans in the 
spring of 18G2 consisted of six sloops of war, sixteen gunboats, five other ves- 
sels, and twenty-one mortar-schooners, the last being under charge of Captain 
David D. Porter, while Commodore David G. Farragut had command of the 
fleet. The troops, mostly from New England, were commanded by General 
B. F. Butler. 

Farragut crossed the bar, April 8th, and spent several days in making his 
preparations for bombarding Forts Jackson and St. Philip. The bombardment 
began April 27th, 1,400 shells being thrown in one day. Farragut then called 
his captains together and told them he had resolved to run by the forts. The 
only question, therefore, was as to the best means of doing it. It was decided 
to make the attempt at night. The darkness, however, was of little benefit, 
since the enemy's huge bonfires on both shores lit up the river as if it were 
noonday. Previous to this, Lieutenant C. H. B. Caldwell, in the gunboat Itasca, 
had ascended the river undiscovered in the darkness and opened a way through 
the boom for the fleet. 

Farragut arranged the fleet in two columns, his own firing upon Fort Jack- 
son, while the other poured its broadsides into Fort St. Philip. The flagship 
Hartford led the way under cover of Porter's mortar-boats and the others fol- 
lowed. There was a furious fight between tlie fleets, but every Confederate 
vessel was either captured or destroyed. 

Farragut steamed on to the city, silencing the batteries along the banks, 
and, at noon, a messenger was sent ashore with a demand for the surrender of 
the city. General Lovell was in command of 3,000 troops, intended for the 
defense of New Orleans, but ke fled. The mayor refusing to haul down the 
secession flag, the Union troops took possession, raised the Union banner over 
the mint, and placed the city in charge of General Butler. The citizens were in 
such a savage mood that Commodore Farragut had to bring them to their senses 
by a threat to bombard the city. 



THE ADVANCE AGAINST RICHMOND. 315 

General Butler ruled with great strictness, and virtually held New 
Orleans under martial law. A Confederate won the applause of his friends by 
climbing to the top of the mint, hauling down the flag, dragging it through the 
mud, and then tearing it to shreds. Butler brought him to trial before a military 
commission, and, being found guilty of the unpardonable insult to the flag, he 
was hanged. 

The fall of New Orleans, one of the leading cities, was a severe blow to the 
Confederacy. The only points where the Mississippi was strongly held by the 
enemy were at Vicksburg and Port Hudson, and attention was already turned 
to them. Farragut having completed his work, for the time took command in 
the Gulf of Mexico. 

The most momentous events of the year occurred in the east and marked 




LIBBY PHISON IN 1865. 

tLe struggle between the Army of the Potomac and the Confederate Army of 
Northern Virginia, as it came to be called. 

THE ADVANCE AGAINST EICHMOND. 

McClellan continued to drill and train his army through the fall of 1861, 
and well into the following year. It numbered nearly 200,000 men and was 
one of the finest organizations in the world. In reply to the expressions of 
impatience, the commander invariably replied that a forward movement would 
soon be begun, but the weeks and months passed and the drilling went on, and 
nothing was done. Finally, the government gave the commander to understand 
that he must advance. 

McClellan's plan was to move against Richmond, from the lower part of 
Chesapeake Bay, by way of Urbana on the Rappahannock. While this had 



316 



ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 



many advantages, its fatal objection in the eyes of tlie President was that it 
would leave Washington unprotected. He issued an order on the 27th of Jan- 
uary directing that on the 22d of February there should be a general land and 
naval movement against the enemy's position on the Potomac, and that, after 
providing for the defense of Washington, a force should seize and occupy a 
point upon the railway to the southwest of Manassas Junction. McClellan was 
offended by the act of the President and protested, but Mr. Lincoln clung in 
the main to his plan, and, since the delay continued, he issued orders directing 
the formation of the army into corps and naming the generals to command 
them. Another order made arrangements for the intended advance, and it was 
left to McClellan to carry them out. 




LIBBY PRISON IN 1884, BEFOBE ITS REMOVAL TO CHICAGO. 

Reliable information reached Washington that General Joseph E. John- 
ston, commander of the Confederate forces at Manassas, was engaged in with- 
drawing his lines with a view of taking a stronger position nearer Richmond. 
General McClellan began a forward movement with the Army of the Potomac 
on the 10th of March. The truth was that Confederate spies in Washington 
had apjsrised Johnston of the intended advance of McClellan from the lower 
Chesapeake, and his action was with a view of checkmating the Union com- 
mander. Instead of carrying out this plan, McClellan marched to Centreville 
and occupied the vacated intrenchments of the enemy. The general hope was 
that Johnston would be forced to give battle, but the roads in Virginia, at that 



THE ADVANCE AGAINST RICHMOND. 317 

season, were one sea of mud, which made progress so slow that the Confederates 
had time iu which to withdraw at their leisure. 

Crossing the Potomac into Virginia, with the main army, McClellan made 
his first headquarters at Fairfax Court-House. About that time he received 
news that he was relieved of the command of the other departments, his authority- 
being confined to the direction of the Army of the Potomac. He was directed 
by the President to garrison Manassas securely, see that Washington was ^yo- 
tected, and, with the rest of his force, assume a new base at Fort Monroe, or 
" anywhere between here and there," and, above all things, to pursue the enemy 
" by some route." 

McClellan's four corps commanders were Sumner, McDowell, Heintzel- 
man, and Keyes, and they and he agreed upon a plan of campaign. The 
difiiculties of transporting nearly 100,000 men to Fort Monroe were so great 
that two weeks were occupied in completing the transfer. In order to prevent 
the Confederates from getting in his rear, McClellan directed Banks to rebuild 
the railroad from Washington to Manassas and Strasburg, thus keeping open 
communication with the Shenandoah Valley, where the enemy were in force, a 
fact which caused the government much uneasiness for the national capitah 
Indeed, it was a part of the effective plan of Johnston to embarrass the cam- 
paign against Richmond. 

Banks occupied Winchester about the middle of March and sent a force 
under Shields to Strasburg. He found Stonewall Jackson there with such a 
strong force that he fell back to Wincliester, where, after the withdrawal of the 
main body by Banks, he was attacked by Jackson, who was repulsed. 

In pursuance of the new plan of campaign, McClellan made Fort Monroe 
his first base of operations, using the route through Yorktown and West Point 
for the advance to Richmond. He expected to fight a great battle on the way 
thither, for the enemy could not fail to read the meaning of his movements. 
McClellan reasoned that this battle would take place between West Point and 
Richmond, and his intention was to advance without delay to the former posi- 
tion and use it as his chief depot for supplies. His plan was to make a com- 
bined naval and military attack on Yorktown, send a strong force up the York 
River, aided by the gunboats, and thus establish his new base of operations 
within twenty-five miles of the Confederate capital. 

It was not long before he began calling for reinforcements, and the govern- 
ment, instead of aiding him, took away piecemeal many of the troops upon 
which the commander had counted to aid him in his campaign. He wanted 
150,000 men and a large increase of cannon. The 10,000 men, composing 
Blenker's division, were detached, as the President informed him, to support 
Fremont, but Mr. Lincoln promised to withdraw no more from the main army. 



318 ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 

McClellan remained at his headquartei-s near Alexandria until most of his 
forces were well on the road to the Yorktown peninsula. He left on the 1st of 
April and the troops were landed three days later. Then a force of 56,000 
men with 100 guns started for Yorktown. 

But for the inherent timidity and distrust of McClellan, he might have 
captured Richmond, by marching straight ahead to the city, for the Confederate 
force opposed to him was but a fragment of his own, and could have been 
trampled underfoot. Tlie Confederate intrenchments were a dozen miles in 
length, and were defended by Magruder with a force that allowed less than a 
thousand men for each mile. 

Instead of pushing on, McClellan began a regular siege of Yorktown, 
Immense siege guns were dragged through the muddy swamps, and the musket 
was laid aside for the spade and shovel, which the men applied week after week, 
until worn out and with thousands prostrated by sickness. The delay, as a 
matter of course, was improved by the Confederates in strengthening the 
defenses of their capital. At the end of a month, the Union army advanced, 
whereupon Magruder fell back to other fortifications nearer Richmond. The 
whole month had been worse than thrown ;i.way by McClellan, for it had given 
the enemy all the time they needed to complete their defenses. 

The Confederate army was increased, and reinforcements were sent to 
McClellan, whose forces were fully 20,000 in excess of those under Johnston, 
but the Union leader magnified the strengtli of the enemy and continued to call 
for more troops. It was this unvarying demand that brought the impatient 
remark from Secretary of War Stanton : 

"If I gave McClellan a million men, he would swear the rebels had two 
millions, and sit down in the mud and refuse to move until he had three 
millions." 

The Confederates fell back to Williamsburg, at the narrowest part of the 
peninsula, between the James and York Rivers, and began fortifying their posi- 
tion. The Union gunboats ascended to Yorktown, where the Federal depots 
were established. Longstreet, in command of the Confederate rear, halted and 
gave battle with a view of protecting his trains. 

The engagement took place on May 5th. The Unionists were repulsed at 
first, but regained and held their ground, the night closing without any decided 
advantage to either army. Longstreet, however, had held the Federals in check 
as long as was necessary, and when he resumed his retreat McClellan did not 
attempt to pursue him. 

The Confederates continued falling back, with McClellan cautiously follow- 
ing. The delay secured by the enemy enabled them to send their baggage and 
supply trains into Richmond, while the army stripped for the fray. They aban- 



THE ADVANCE AGAINST RICHMOND. 



319 



doned the Yorktown j^eninsula altogether and evacuated Norfolk, which was 
occupied by General Wool. It was this movement which caused the blowing 
up of the Merrimac, referred to elsewhere. 

From this it will be seen that both 
shores of the James were in possession 
of the Union forces. The Confederate 
army withdrew within the defenses of 
Richmond on the 10th 
of May, and the Fed- 
eral gunboats, after 
steaming up the river 
to within twelve miles 
of the city, were com- 
pel led to withdraw 
before the plunging 
shots of the batteries, 




which stood on the 
tops of the high bluffs. 
Following the line 
of the Pamunkey, 
McClellan's advance- 
guard reached the Chickahominy 
on the 21st of May, and could plainly 
see the spires and steeples of Rich- 
mond, which was thrown into a state 
of great alarm. Rain fell most of 
the time, and the rise of the Chicka- 
hominy carried away the bridges, 
made the surrounding country a 
swamp, and badly divided the Union 
army. 

One of the most effective means 
employed by the Confederate com- 
mander against the Union advance was by creating a diversion in the Shenan- 
doah Valley and fear for the safety of "Washington. Rather than lose that, 
our government would have sacrificed the Army of the Potomac. General 
Johnston had sent Stonewall Jackson into the Valley, where Banks was in 



MOIST MTEATHEB AT THE FEONT. 



320 ADMINISTRATION OF LINCvLN. 

command. He was another of the political generals, wholly unfitted for th ^ 
responsibilities placed in his hands. 

At the opening of hostilities, Banks was so confident that he telegraphed 
the government that Jackson was on the eve of being crushed ; but it proved 
the other way. Banks was completely outgeneraled and sent flying toward 
Washington. His troops marched more than thirty miles a day, and would 
have been captured or destroyed to a man had Jackson continued his pursuit, 
but his forces were fewer in numbers, and he allowed the exhausted and panic- 
stricken fugitives to find refuge in Washington. 

This routing of Banks frightened Washington again, and McDowell was 
hastily called from Fredericksburg to the defense of the capital. This was the 
very thing for which the Confederates had planned, since it kept those rein- 
forcements away from McClellan, who was ordered by President Lincoln to 
attack at once or give up his plan. Still cautious and wishing to feel every foot 
of the way, McClellan pushed a reeonnoissance in the direction of Hanover Court- 
House. 

When fire was opened on the Confederates most of them fell back to 
Richmond. General Jo Johnston, perceiving that the Union army was divided 
by the swollen Chickahominy, quickly took advantage of it, and prepared to 
hurl a force of 50,000 against the Union corps, which numbered a little more 
than half as many. A violent rain so interfered with his j^lans that 10,000 of 
his troops were unable to take part in the battle. In the disjointed struggle 
which followed, the Confederates were successful at what is known as the battle 
of Seven Pines, but were defeated at Fair Oaks. Both were fought on June 1st. 

GENERAL LEE BECOMES CONFEDERATE COMMANDER. 

In the fighting on the morrow, General Johnston, while directing the at- 
tack of the right, was desperately wounded by an exploding shell, which broke 
several ribs and knocked him from his horse. General- G. W. Smith succeeded 
him in command, but three days later gave way to General R. E. Lee, who in 
time became the supreme head of the military forces of the Confederacy, and 
retained his command to the last. 

McCLELLAN's TARDINESS. 

The corps commanders believed that if ]\IcClellan would press matters 
Richmond could be captured, but the Union leader devoted several weeks to 
building bridges. It rained incessantly and the health of the men suffered. 
Many more died from disease than from bullets and wounds, and McClellan's 
tardiness gave the enemy the time they needed in which to make their combinations 
as strong as possible. Stonewall Jackson, although placed in a perilous position 



THE SEVEN DAYS' FIGHT. 321 

in the Shenandoah Valley, skillfully extricated himself and united his corps 
with the troops that were defending Richmond. 

GENERAL STUAKX's EAID. 

While McClellan was engaged in constructing bridges over the Chicka- 
hominy, and no important movement was made by either army, General J. E. 
B. Stuart, the famous cavalry leader, left Eichmond, June loth, with a strong 
mounted force, and, by rapid riding and his knowledge of the country, passed 
entirely around the Federal army, cutting telegraph wires, burning bridges, 
capturing wagons and supplies, frightening McClellan, and returning to Rich- 
mond, after two days' absence, with the loss of only a single man. 

The Union commander was discouraged by the withdrawal of McDowell 
to the defense of "Washington, by the uncertainty regarding the disposition of the 
enemy's corps, and by the belief that they were much more numerous than was 
the fact. He decided to change the base of his operations from the Pamunkey 
to the James. Both he and Lee fixed upon the same day — June 26th — for an 
offensive movement; but Lee was the first to act. On the afternoon of that day 
a vehement attack was made upon the Union right. The assault was repulsed, 
after a furious struggle, and it marked the beginning of that fearful series of 
battles known as the Seven Days' Fight. 

THE SEVEN DATS' FIGHT. 

Feeling insecure, McClellan fell back, and the terrific fighting, beginning 
June 26th, at Mechanicsville, continued with scarcely any intermission until 
July 1st. Both armies were well handled and fought bravely, but McClellan 
kept steadily falling back. Lee was not satisfied with simply defeating the 
Union army ; he strained every nerve to destroy it, but he was defeated in his 
purpose, and, as the hot afternoon of June 30th was drawing to a close, the last 
wagon train of the Union army reached Malvern Hill, and preparations were 
hurriedly made to resist the assault that every one knew would soon come. 

Malvern Hill was a strong position. In addition the Federals had the aid 
of the gunboats. Indeed, the j)lace was so well-nigh impregnable that the 
warmest adi^irers of General Lee must condemn his furious and repeated 
assaults upon it. He suffered a disastrous repulse, and in the end withdrew to 
the defenses of Richmond, while McClellan took position at Hairison's Land- 
ing. All the Union troops had arrived by the night of July 3d, and their 
commander began to study out a new plan for another advance against the Con- 
federate capital. Before anything could be done, he was peremptorily ordered 
to withdraw his army from the peninsula. The movement was begun with the 

21 



322 ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 

purpose of uniting the troops with those of General Pope, who was to the south- 
east of Washington, and placing them all under his command. 

Pope had 40,000 troops between Fredericksburg and Washington. Learn- 
ing the situation, Lee kept enough men to hold Eichmond, and sent the rest, 
under Stonewall Jackson, against Pope in the north. Jackson executed the 
task intrusted to him in his usual meteoric fashion. Despite the risk involved, 
he threw himself between Pope and Washington and struck here, there, and 
everywhere so rapidly that the Union general became bewildered, his associate 
officers disgusted, and everything was involved in inextricable confusion. 

SECOND BATTLE OF BULL EUN. 

The second battle of Bull Run, or Manassas, opened early on August 29th 
and lasted until dusk. The fighting was desperate, Jackson standing mainly on 
the defensive and waiting for Longstreet, who was hurrying forward through 
Thoroughfare Gap. At night Jackson withdrew so as to connect with Long- 
street. Believing the movement meant a retreat, Pope telegraphed to that effect 
to Washington. But he was grievously mistaken, for the Confederates were 
rapidly reinforced, as was discovered the next day, when the battle was renewed 
and pressed resistlessly against the Federals. In the afternoon Lee arrived on 
the ground, and, taking command, ordered an advance. Pope retreated, and 
that night crossed Bull Run and took position behind the field works at Centre- 
ville. Other corps joined him, and on the 1st of September Lee made a demon- 
stration against the Union right flank. Pope now became terrified, as he saw 
that Washington was threatened, and he began a tumultuous retreat toward the 
capital, pursued and harassed by the Confederates, until at last the whole 
disorganized army found rest and safety behind the fortifications at Washing- 
ton. Pope had been disastrously defeated, and the second campaign against 
Richmond was one of the worst failures conceivable. 

MCCLELLAN RECALLED TO COMMAND. 

Pope had done the best he knew how, but the task was beyond his ability, 
and he was glad enough to be relieved of his command, which was assumed 
once more by McClellan, who still retained a great deal of his popularity with 
the rank and file. Pope's division had been styled the Army of Virginia, but 
the name was now dropped, and the consolidated forces adopted the title of the 
Army of the Potomac, by which it M'as known to the close of the war. 

The success of the Confederates had been so decisive that the Richmond 
authorities now decided to assume the aggressive and invade the North. It was 
a bold plan thus to send their principal army so far from its base, and General 
Lee did not favor it, but the opportunity was too tempting for his superiors to 



THE CONFEDERATE ADVANCE INTO MARYLAND. 323 

disregard. One great incentive was the well-founded belief that if the Confed- 
eracy gained a marked advantage, England and France would intervene and 
thus secure the independence of the South. 

The neighboring State of Maryland was viewed with longing and hopeful 
eyes by Lee and his army. It was a slave State, had furnished a good many 
men to the Confederate armies, and, had it been left to itself, probably would 
have seceded. What more likely, therefore, than that its people would hasten 
to link their fortunes with the Confederacy on the very hour that its most 
powerful army crossed her border ? 

THE CONFEDERATE ADVANCE INTO MARYLAND. 

The Confederate army began fording the Potomac at a point nearly oppo- 
site the Monocacy, and by the 5th of September all of it was on Maryland soil. 
The bands struck up the popular air, "Maryland, my Maryland," the exultant 
thousands joining in the tremendous chorus, as they swung off, all in high spirits 
at the belief that they were entering a land "flowing with milk and honey," 
where they would find abundant food and be received with outspread arms. 

Frederick City was reached on the 6th, and two days later Lee issued an 
address to the peoj^le of Maryland, inviting them to unite with the South, but 
insisting that they should follow their free-will in every resj^ect. The document 
was a temperate one, and the discipline of the troops was so excellent that 
nothing in the nature of plundering occurred. 

But it did not take Lee long to discover he had made a grievous mistake by 
invading Maryland. If the people were sympathetic, they did not show it by 
anything more than words and looks. They refused to enlist in the rebel army, 
gave Lee the "cold shoulder," and left no doubt that their greatest pleasure 
would be to see the last of the ragged horde. 

While at Frederick, Lee learned that the Union Colonel Miles was at 
Harper's Ferry with 12,000 troops, held there by the direct order of General 
Halleck, who was the acting commander-in-chief of the United States forces. 
Lee determined to cajDture the whole body, and, detaching Stonewall Jackson 
with three divisions, ordered him to do so and return to him with the least pos- 
sible delay. 

Military critics have condemned this act of Lee as one of the gravest blun- 
ders of his career. His advance thus far had been resistless, and it was in his 
power to capture Baltimore, and threaten Philadelphia and Washington ; but 
the delay involved in awaiting the return of Jackson gave McClellan, who was 
a skillful organizer, time to prepare to meet the Confederate invasion. 

Jackson lost not an hour in capturing Harper's Ferry, the defense of which 
was so disgraceful that had not Colonel Miles been killed just as the white flag 



324 ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 

was run up he would have been court-martialed and probably shot. Many sus- 
pected him of treason, but the real reason was his cowardice and the fact that he 
was intoxicated most of the time. Be that as it may, Harper's Ferry surren- 
dered with its garrison of 11,500 men, who were immediately paroled. The 
Confederates obtained seventy-two cannon, 13,000 small arms, and an immense 
amount of military stores. 

Scarcely had the surrender taken j)lace, when Jackson, who had hardly 
slept for several days and nights, received orders from Lee to join him at once. 
He started without delay, but he and his men were almost worn out. It is likely 
that by this time Lee was aware of the mistake he had made when he stopped 
for several days while his leading assistant went off to capture a jDost that was 
of no importance to either side. 

mcclellan's pursuit of lee. 

Leaving a strong garrison to defend Washington, MeClellan, at the liead 
of 70,000 troops, set out to follow Lee, who had about 40,000 under his im- 
mediate command. The LTnion leader reached Frederick on the 12th of Sejv 
tember, and there a curious piece of good fortune befell him. 

In the house which had been used as the headquarters of General D. H. 
Hill was found a cojjy of an order issued by General Lee, which detailed his 
projected movements, and contained his instructions to his various leaders. It 
was priceless information to General MeClellan, who made good use of it. 

Lee manoeuvred to draw MeClellan away from Washington and Baltimore, 
that he might attack them before the Union commander could return to their 
defense. Lee left Frederick on September 10th, after Jackson had started for 
Harper's Ferry, and, marching by South Mountain, aimed for Boonsboro'. 
Stuart and his cavalry remained east of the mountains to watch MeClellan, 
who was advancing with every possible precaution. Lee expected Harper's 
Ferry would fall on the 13th, but the surrender did not take place until two 
days later. The Confederate army being divided, MeClellan tried to take 
advantage of the fact, hoping to save Colonel Miles at Harper's Ferry. It did 
not take Lee long to perceive from the actions of the Union commander that 
in some way he had learned of his plans. 

It would not be interesting to give the details of the many manoeuvres by 
each commander, but before long Lee saw he could not hold his position at 
South Mountain, and he retreated toward Sharpsburg, near the stream of water 
known as Antietam Creek. He was thus on the flank of any Federal force 
that might attempt to save Harper's Ferry. Naturally he held the fords of the 
Potomac, so that in case of defeat the way to Virginia was open. 

Still Lee and Jackson were separated by a wide stretch of mountain, river, 



Jl 



BATTLE OF ANTIETAM OR SHARPSBURG. 



325 



and plain, and McClellan was aware of the fact. He had the opportunity to 
cut off each diviision in detail, but lacked the nerve and dash to do it. There 
were subordinates in the Army of the Potomac who yearned for just such a 
chance, but McClellan 's timidity and excessive caution deprived him of another 
golden opportunity, as it had done before and was soon to do again. 

The position of Lee was among a range of hills, which, following the form 
of a crescent, extended from the lower point of Antietam Creek to a bend in 
the Potomac. Jackson was straining every nerve to join Lee, but his men were 




ANTIETAM BEIDGE. 

taxed beyond endurance, and many of them fell by the roadside from utter 
exhaustion, only a portion reaching Sharpsburg on the 16th. The full Confed- 
erate army did not exceed 40,000, while McClellan, who arrived on the opposite 
side of Antietam Creek, that afternoon, had 70,000. Instead of attacking at 
once, he waited two days, and thus gave Lee time to gather many thousand 
stragglers. 

BATTLE OF ANTIETAM OR SHARPSBTTBG. 

Finally, when McClellan had no excuse for further delay, and the enemy 
was in fine form, he opened the attack on the morning of the 17th. To reach 



326 ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 

Lee the Union commander had to cross the creek, which was spanned by three 
bridges, each defended by Confederate batteries. 

The first attack was by Hooker on the enemy's left, where he drove Jack- 
son back, after he had been reinforced by Hood, cleared the woods, and took 
possession of the Dunker Church, which stood slightly north of Sharpsburg. 
A little way beyond the Confederates made a stand, and, being reinforced, 
recovered most of the ground they had lost. General Mansfield was killed and 
Hooker received a painful wound in the foot. When their two corps were 
retreating in confusion, Sumner arrived, rallied them, and made a successful 
stand. Seeing the critical situation, Lee hurried every available man to that 
point. This left only 2,500 troops in front of the bridge, where Burnside had 
14,000. McClellan sent repeated orders for him to advance, but he paid no 
attention until one o'clock, when he crossed without trouble, and then remained 
idle for three more hours. The heights were soon captured, and a position 
secured from which the rebel lines could be enfiladed. A. P. Hill arrived at 
this juncture from Harper's Ferry with 4,000 men, and drove Burnside in a 
panic to the creek. Fighting soon ceased, both sides too much exhausted 
to keep up the terrific struggle, the position of the two armies being much the 
same as at first. 

This fierce battle had wrenched and disorganized both armies, but McClel- 
lan, who had much the larger body, might have destroyed or captured those in 
front of him, had he followed the urgent advice of his officers, and given the 
enemy no rest. But he decided to await reinforcements, which arrived to the 
number of 14,000 that night. Then he resumed his preparations, and on the 
morning of the 19th advanced against the enemy, only to find there was none 

in front of him. 

lee's eetreat. 

The retreat of Lee was deliberate. Having accurately gauged the 
commander in front of him, he spent all of the 18th in completing his 
preparations, and made no move until the next morning. Then, protected by 
batteries on the opposite bank, he crossed the Potomac, and on the 20th drove 
back a Union reconnoissance. The government, impatient with McClellan's 
tardiness, urged and almost ordered him to follow up Lee, but the commander 
preferred to guard against being followed up himself by the Army of Northern 
Virginia. Thus again a golden opportunity slipped away unimproved. 

Naturally each side claimed a victory at Antietam or Sharpsburg, as it is 
called in the South, but such a claim in either case is hardly justifiable. It 
may be said, on the one hand, that Lee's invasion of the North was brought to 
a disastrous end by his check at Antietam, but the claim of Lee was that his 
failure to secure the expected recruits from Maryland, and his distance from the 



McCLELLAN SUPERSEDED BY BURNSIDE. 327 

base of supplies, necessitated such a withdrawal on his part, for it is established 
that he was opposed to the northward advance from the first. 

On the other hand, he had received a serious check, but his army remained 
intact and was as well prepared as ever to contest the campaign against Richmond, 
a campaign which had to be pushed to a successful conclusion before the war 
could end. The one grand opportunity of General McClellan's life was 
presented to him at the close of the battle of Antietam, and, failing to seize 
it, it never came again, and his military career ended with failure. ( 

Antietam was, in comparison to numbers engaged, the bloodiest battle of 
the Civil War. The Union loss was 2,108 killed ; 9,549 wounded ; 753 missing; 
total, 12,410. Tlie Confederate loss was 1,886 killed; 9,348 wounded; 1,367 
captured and missing; total, 12,601. 

The government was insistent that McClellan should push his advance 
against Richmond, but the favorable autumn wore away and the wet season 
arrived before a jjlan of campaign was formulated. This was to cross the 
Blue Ridge Mountains from Harper's Ferry, following the southeastern side of 
the range, leaving detachments to guard all the passes, and thus threaten the 
Confederate communications in the Shenandoah Valley. 

m'CLELLAN superseded by BURNSIDE. 

Accordingly, on the 25th of October, the Army of the Potomac once more 
faced toward the Confederate capital. In the course of a week, it held the 
whole region southwest of the Blue Ridge and was near the army of General Lee, 
who fell back, caut'ously followed at a safe distance by the Union commander. 
On the night of November 7th, while McClellan was talking in his tent with 
Biirnside, a messenger arrived from Washington with an official order, relieving 
McClellan of the command of the Army of the Potomac and appointing Burnside 
as his successor. McClellan promptly turned over the care of the army to him, 
and, as directed, proceeded to Trenton, N. J., to await further orders. 

It may be added that General McClellan never served again in the army. 
He resigned in 1864, and was nominated the same year for President of the 
United States, but received only 21 electoral votes. He was Democratic governor 
of New Jersey 1878-1881, and died at his home in Orange, N. J., October 29, 
1885. 

Burnside, although a fine corps commander, was not qualified to command 
the splendid body over which he was thus placed. He devoted a number 
of days to acquainting himself with his vastly enlarged duties. The six corps 
were united into three divisions of two corps each, Sumner commanding the 
right, Hooker the centre, and Franklin the left, while General Sigel had charge 
of a body of reserve. 



328 ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 

After consulting with General Halleck, it was decided that the Army of 
the Potomac should make a rapid march down the Rappahannock, cross by 
ponton-bridges at Fredericksburg, and then advance upon Kichmoud by way of 
Hanover Court-House. 

Everything depended upon initiating the movement before it was dis- 
covered by the enemy, but the delays, which perhaps were unavoidable, revealed 
the truth to Lee. When Sumner's division reached a point opposite Fredericks- 
burg they saw the Confederates on the other side awaiting them. Still the force 
was so meagre that Sumner wished to cross and crush it, but Burnside would 
not permit. The delay gave Lee time to bring up his whole army and make his 
position impregnable. He stationed a battery some miles below" the town to 
prevent any Union gunboats coming up stream, while every ford was closely 
guarded. 

Burnside faltered before the position that was like a mountain wall, but the 
North was clamorous for something to be done, and he decided to make the 
hopeless attack. One hundred and forty-seven cannon were posted, on the night 
of December 10th, so as to command the town and cover the crossing of the 
river. Unable to prevent this, Lee made his preparations to annihilate the 
Unionists after they had crossed. 

UNION DISASTER AT FREDERICKSBURG'. 

In the face of a brisk fire, a force was sent over the river and occupied the 
town, while Franklin laid his bridges two miles below and crossed witliout 
trouble. When the cold, foggy morning of December 13th broke, the whole 
Army of the Potomac was on the southern shore and the Confederate army was 
on the heights behind Fredericksburg. 

As the fog had cleared to some extent. General Franklin advanced 
against the Confederate right, but, misunderstanding Burnside's order, he made 
only a feint. Fighting was kept up throughout the day, and once General 
Meade forced a gap in the enemy's line, but he was not reinforced, and was 
driven back with severe loss. 

The attack on the right having failed, Sumner threw himself against the 
left. This required the seizure of Marye's Hill, and was hopeless from the first. 
As the Union troops emerged from the town they were in fair range of an 
appalling fire that mowed down scores. Still they jiressed on with a courage 
that could not be surpassed until one-half lay dead and dying, when the rest 
staggered backward out of the furnace-blast of death. The gallant Hancock 
gathered up the fragments of the shattered line, and, uniting them with his own 
men, numbering 5,000 in all, he led a charge, which in a brief while stretched 2,000 
dead or wounded. Still the survivors held their ground and were joined by 



UNION DISASTER AT FREDERICKSBURG. 



329 



ordered another 



others, who fell so fast that it was soon evident that every man would be killed. 
Then grimly remarking, " I guess we have had enough killed to satisfy Burn- 
Bide," Hancock ordered the brave fellows to fall back. 

Burnside was frantic over the repeated failures. He was determined that 
the heights should be carried, and ordered Hooker, his only remaining general, 
to do it. Hooker went across with his three divisions, made a careful reconnois- 
sance, and saw that to carry out the command meant the massacre of all his 
troops. He returned to Burnside and begged him to recall his order. He re- 
fused, and Hooker atterajjted to obey, leading 4,000 of as brave men as ever 
shouldered a musket ; but before they could reach ^ the stone wall 1,700 lay 
helpless on the icy earth and the remainder fled. 

Had not night been at hand, Burnside would 
charge and sacrificed 

hundreds of more =^^*'\ 

lives, but he con- ~ 

eluded to let the men 
live until the next 
morning. Already 
1,200 had been 
killed, almost 10,000 
wounded, and sev- 
eral thousand were 
missing. The com- 
manders gathered 
around Burnside 
and insisted that the 
army should be 
brought across the 

river before it was annihilated, but he refused. He was resolved on sacrificing 
several thousand more under the ghastly name of a " charge." At last, how- 
ever, he became more reasonable and listened to his officers. Perhaps the 
shrieks of the wounded, who lay for two days and nights where they had fallen 
without helji, produced some effect in awaking him to a sense of his horrible 
blundering and incompetency, for, when the bleak, dismal morning dawned, 
the intended " charge " was not ordered. The Army of the Potomac had been 
wounded so well-nigh unto death that it could not stand another similar 
blow. 

On the cold, rainy night of December 15th, the wretched forces tramped back 
over the river on the ponton-bridges, having suffered the worst defeat in the 
army's whole history. It was i;» the power of Lee to destroy it utterly, but it 




LATEST MODEL OF GATLING GUN. 



330 ADSIINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 

slipped away from him, just a« it had slipped away from McClellan after the 
battle of Autietam. 

The Union losses at Fredericksburg were: Killed, 1,284; wounded, 9,600; 
missing, 1,769 ; total, 12,653. The Confederate losses were : Killed, 596 ; 
wounded, 4,068 ; captured and missing, 651. Total, 5,315. 

SUMMARY OF THE YEAE's OPERATIONS. 

The eventful year had been one of terrible fighting. It had opened with 
the Union successes of Forts Henry and Donelson, followed by Pea Ridge, 
Pittsburg Landing, and Corinth in the West, the naval battle between the 
3Ierrimac and 3Ionitor, the capture of Roanoke Island and of New Orleans. 
Bragg's invasion of Kentucky was injurious to the Union cause, while, as we 
have seen, the campaign against Richmond had been a series of disastrous 
failures. Still, taken as a whole, the year showed a decisive step forward. The 
Union line had been advanced across the State of Tennessee, substantial 
progress had been made in opening the Mississippi, and the blockade was 
enforced with a rigidity that caused great distress in the Confederacy. 

Both sides felt the terrific strain of the war. The Confederacy in April 
passed a conscription act, which made all able-bodied males between the ages of 
eighteen and thirty-five years soldiers for the war. All such were taken from 
the control of the State of which they were residents and placed at the disposal 
of President Davis until the close of the war. This conscription act was soon 
made much more severe in its provisions. 

THE CONFEDERATE PRIVATEERS. 

One source of help to the Confederacy was her privateers, which wrought 
immense damage to northern shipping. England assisted in fitting them out. 
Despite the protests of Minister Adams, many of these were allowed to put to 
sea. One of the first was the Oreto, afterward known as the Florida. She 
succeeded in eluding the blockade at Mobile, through flying the British flag, 
delivered her valuable freight, received her armament, and came forth again in 
the latter part of December and began her wholesale destruction of American 
merchantmen. 

The privateer Sumter was driven into Gibraltar, and so closely watched by the 
Tuscarora that Captain Semmes, her commander, sold her, and made Jiis way to 
England, where the F<nglish built for him the most famous privateer the Con- 
federacy ever had — the Alabama — of which much more will be told further on. 

THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. 

The national government had learned by this time the full measurement 



THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION, 



331 



of the gigantic task before it. By the close of the year, 1,300,000 volunteers 
had been called for, and the daily expenses amounted to $3,000,000. The 
conviction, too, was growing that slavery was the real cause of the war, and the 
time had come to treat it with less consideration than many leading officers and 
men whose patriotism could not be doubted were disposed to show toward the 
"peculiar institution." President Lincoln was one of the wisest men who ever 
sat in the executive chair, and none read so unerringly the signs of the times as 
he. The Abolitionists were impatient with his slowness, while many of the 




UNITED STATES MILITABY TELEGRAPH "WAGON. 



doubting thought he went too fast. He waited until the right hour, and then 
issued his Emancipation Proclamation. 

This appeared soon after the battle of Antietam, and it is said was the ful- 
fillment of the pledge President Lincoln had made to heaven that, if Lee's 
invasion was turned back, he would issue the great paper, which, in effect, would 
see free 4,000,000 bondsmen. In it he warned the seceding States that in every 
one which failed to return to its allegiance by the first of January, 1863, he 
would declare the slaves free. The warning was received with scorn, as was 



332 ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 

expected. From the date named, therefore, all the armed forces of the Union 
treated the slaves as free wherever encountered. Before long colored men were 
enlisted as soldiers and sailors, and they bore no inconsiderable part in the 
prosecution of the war. 

"greenbacks." 

It will be understood that the revenue of the government was altogether 
unequal to the vast demands upon it. Taxation was increased, and, in 1862, 
the government began the issue of its own paper money. The backs of the 
bills being printed in green ink, these bills were known as "greenbacks." They 
were made a legal tender, despite considerable opposition to the measure. The 
law gave any person owing a debt, no matter if contracted in gold and silver, the 
right to i^ay the same with greenbacks. Since it is impossible to regulate the 
value of money except by the law of supply and demand, the bills, as comjjared 
with gold, depreciated a good deal in value. 

The act of February 25, 1862, authorized the issue of $150,000,000, and 
further issues were made on June 11, 1862, and March 3, 1863. The depre- 
ciation of greenbacks was such that the price of gold averaged 2.20 through- 
out 1864, and at one time reached 2.85. In other words, a greenback dollar was 
worth only thirty-five cents. Another method of raising money was through 
the sale of bonds, of which many millions were issued. To encourage their 
sale, the National Banking System was established in 1863. This required all 
banks that issued currency to deposit a slightly larger amount of bonds in 
Washington. Thus the banks were compelled to help the government by 
loaning it money. 



CHAPTEK XVII. 

ADNIINISTRATION OK LINCOLN (CONTINUED), 

1861-1865. 

WAR KOR THE UNION (CONTINUED), 1863. 

"The Military Situation in the West — Siege and Capture of Vicksburg— The Mississippi Opened — Battle of 
Chickamauga — "The Rock of Chickatuauga " — The Battle Above the Clouds — Siege of Knoxville — 
General Hooker Appointed to the Command of the Army of the Potomac — His Plan of Campaign 
Against Richmond — Stonewall Jackson's Stampede of the Eleventh Corps — (Jritical Situation of the 
Union Army — Death of Jackson— Battle of Chancellorsville — Defeat of Hooker — The Second Con- 
federate Invasion — Battle of Gettysburg — The Decisive Struggle of the War — Lee's Retreat — Sub- 
sequent Blovements of Lee and Meade — Confederate Privateering — Destruction of the Nashville — 
Failure of the Attacks on Charleston— The Military Raids— Stuart's Narrow Escape— Stoneman's 
Raid^Morgan's Raid in Indiana and Ohio. 

There were now such immense armies in the field and military operations 
were conducted on so vast a scale that the reader must carefully study the 
situation in order to gain an intelligent idea of the progress of the momentous 
events. We will give our attention first to operations in the West. 

THE SITUATION IJf THE WEST. 

There were four Union armies in that section. The first was the one under 
Rosecrans, which, on the opening days of the year, won the victory at 
Murfreesboro' or Stone River, an account of which is given in the preceding 
chapter. The second was near Holly Springs, under General Grant ; a third 
was in New Orleans, under General Banks, who had succeeded General Butler; 
and the fourth was in Arkansas. The main object of all these armies was to 
open the Mississippi. When that should be accomplished, the Confederacy 
would be split in two. Hundreds of thousands of beeves were drawn from 
Texas and the country beyond the Mississippi, and to shut off this supply 
would be one of the most eflfective blows that could be struck against the 
rebellion. 

GRANT BEFORE VICKSBURG. 

General Sherman had failed to capture Vicksbui'g, and General Grant 
assumed command of the forces besieging it. He saw that the defenses facing 
the Mississippi and the lower part of the Yazoo were too powerful to be takea 

(338) 



334 



ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 



by storm. He decided as a consequence to turn the rear of the lines, and, 
securing an entrance into the upper part of the Yazoo, reach the rear of the 
batteries at Haines' Bluff. 

In this important work he received vaUiable help from the ironclads of 
Admiral Porter. With one of them he opened communication with the 
squadron in the lower part of the Mississippi and disabled a Confederate 
steamer under the guns of Vicksburg. Two of the boats groped their way 
through the swamps and wooded creeks, where nothing more than canoes and 
dugouts had ventured before, obtained a great deal of cotton and burned much 
more, disregarded the torpedoes and fought the rebels along the banks, explored 
new routes, and in the end both were captured by the enemy. 

Several ingenious plans were 
tried to capture tliese formidable 
fortifications. One was an attempt 
to force a passage into the Upper 
Yazoo. Another was to open a 
new channel for the Mississippi. 
Both were failures, but the levees 
along the Yazoo were cut and 
many acres in the rear of Vicks- 
'burg overflowed, while a great deal 
of Arkansas and Louisiana was 
flooded. The object of all this was 
to shut off the supplies of Vicks- 
burg. Admiral Farragut now 
strove to pass from the lower Mis- 
sissippi by the Port Hudson bat- 
teries to Vicksburg. The effort 
was made on the night of March 14th, which was of inky darkness. The 
approach was discovered by the enemy, who kindled large bonfires on the bank 
which revealed the passing vessels. The latter opened on the batteries with 
great effect, but only two, including the flagship, were able to get past, the 
thirteen being forced to turn back. The Mississippi ran aground and was set 
on fire and abandoned. With the two vessels in hand, Farragut blockaded 
the mouth of the Red River and gave valuable help to General Grant, but the 
land forces advancing from Baton Rouge to aid in the attack on Vicksburg 
turned back upon learning of the failure of Farragut's fleet to run past the 
batteries. 

General Grant had set out to capture Vicksburg and nothing could turn 
him from his purpose. His aim was to sever the Confederate communications 




ADMIHAL POBTEB. 



RUNNING THE BATTERIES. 



335 



with the east by turning the defenses of the Yazoo and the Mississippi. General 
McClernand was sent in the latter part of March to occupy New Carthage to 
the south, while General Banks, by advancing from New Orleans, threatened 
Port Hudson in conjunction with the fleet lying near. 

Banks' force was so large that the most the enemy could do was to delay 
his advance by burning bridges and obstructing the river. In the latter part 
of April, he established himself at Simmsport, near the junction of the 
Atchafalaya and the Mississippi. Admiral Porter, who was lying with his 
fleet above Vicksburg, now made the attempt to join Fari'agut below, and it 
proved one of the most exciting ex- 
periences of the war. 

RUNNING THE BATTERIES. 

Naturally a dark night — April 
16th — was selected, and eight gun- 
boats, three transports, and sevei'al 
barges loaded with supplies silently 
dropped down the river in the im- 
penetrable mist, Avhile the thousands 
of Union troops intently watched the 
hulls as they melted from sight in 
the gloom. The hope was general 
that they would be able to float past 
undiscovered, and, when an hour of 
intense stillness went by, the watch- 
ers and listeners began to breathe 
more freely, though their anxiety 
was only partly lifted. 

Suddenly two crimson lines of 
fire flamed along the river front, and 
the earth trembled under the stu- 
pendous exj^losion. The ships had been detected, and the river was swept by 
a tempest of shot and shell that it seemed must shatter to fragments every one 
of the craft. It should be remembered that these batteries extended for a long 
distance along the shore, and they opened one after the other, as the ships came 
opposite. Thus the fleet became the target of battery after battery, and had 
a continuous and extended gantlet to run before reaching safety. 

The gunboats returned the fire as they swept by, and many of their shots 
were effective, but in such a duel the advantage is always with the land batteries. 
One of the transports was disabled, and another, directly behind her, had to 




DAVID G. FABRAGUT. 



336 ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 

stop to avoid running into the injured craft. The crew of the former, finding 
themselves the centre of a terrific fire, launched the yawl, and, lea^jing into it, 
pulled for the shore. They had scarcely left their vessel when it was fired by 
a shell, and, aflame from stem to stern, it drifted down stream. Meanwhile, the 
transport that had grounded was towed out of danger. With this exception, 
tiie whole fleet got safely past, the loss being only one man killed and two 
wounded on Porter's flagship. 

General Grant was greatly pleased with this success. A few nights later 
a second attempt was successful. He was thus enabled to send supplies to the 
army, with which he intended to attack Vicksburg on the south. Gradually 
shifting his own position, he reached a point opposite Grand Gulf, a short 
distance below the mouth of the Big Black River. 

CAPTURE OF GRAND GULF. 

Although Grand Gulf was strongly fi)rtified its quick capture was a neces- 
sity. McClernaud had been ordered several times to attack it, but he was so 
laggard that Grant himself undertook the task. It proved one of extreme 
difiiculty, and he was obliged to make a change of plans, but he handled his 
troops with admirable skill and with such efiect that the Confederate com- 
mander's position at Grand Gulf became untenable and he withdrew. Grant 
rode into town and found the place in the possession of Admiral Farragut. 

The success was so brilliant that Pemberton, the Confederate general com- 
manding the forces at Vicksburg, became alarmed and telegraphed to General 
Jo Johnston for reinforcements, but Johnston was too much occupied with Rose- 
crans in Tennessee to spare any of his men, and about all he could do was to 
send encouraging words to his subordinate. 

grant's fine generalship. 

General Grant never displayed his great genius more strikingly than in 
the operations before Vicksburg. For days and nights he seemed scarcely to 
eat or sleep. He was here, there, and everywhere, and was familiar with all 
the minute details of his momentous enterprise. General Pemberton confessed 
in his reports that the amazing activity of Grant "embarrassed him." 

Grand Gulf was made the base of oj^erations, and, well aware that rein- 
forcements would be hurried to the garrison. Grant hastened his movements. 
While pressing his attack he learned that Johnston was at Jackson with a 
strong force, with which to reinforce Pemberton. He immediately dispatched 
McPherson and Sherman thither, and, after a fierce fight, Jackson was captured. 
Grant learned from deserters that Johnston, the chief Confederate commander 
in that section, had sent peremptory orders to Pemberton to leave Vicksburg 



li 



GRANT'S FINE GENERALSHIP. 



337 



and attack him iu the rear. The latter, with his usual promptness, met this 
danger, and, by decisively defeating the enemy at Champion Hill, he accom- 
plished the splendid feat of keeping Johnston out of Vicksburg and Pemberton 
in. It was a great 
exploit, for Jo John- 

( 
i 



ston was one of the 
ablest generals of 
the war, and the 
fine campaign 
which he had j^lan- 
ned was brought to 
naught. Not only 
was he kept out of 
Vicksburg, but it 
was made impossi- 
ble for him to send 
any help to Pember- 
ton, around whom 
the Union com- 
mander was draw- 
ing the coils more 
tightly each day. 

Still the de- 
fenses of Vicksburg 
were too powerful to 
be captured by 
storm, and Grant 
did the only thing 
possible — he be- 
sieged the city. The 
siege began about 
the middle of May. 
The garrison had 
provisions for barely 
two months, from 
which they had to 

supply the inhabitants of the town. Jo Johnston saw the peril and set to work 
with such vigor to raise a force to send to the relief of Pemberton, that Grant 
was hurried into making an assault on the rebel works. This took place before 
daylight on the morning of May 19th. Though successful at first, the Federals 

22 




GBANT AFTEB THE BATTLE OF BELMONT. 



338 • ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN.. 

were repulsed. A graud assault was undertaken three days later and pressed 
with the utmost bravery, but it resulted in another repulse, in which the loss of 
the assailants was three times greater than that of the defenders. Porter tried 
to help with his fleet, but his vessels were so badly injured by the batteries that 
they were compelled to withdraw from action. 

This failure showed that it was useless to try to capture Vicksburg except 
through a regular siege, which was pressed henceforth without intermission. 
Shells were thrown into the doomed city night and day ; the jjeople lived in 
caves, on short rations, and underwent miseries and sufferings which it is hard 
to comprehend in these days. All the time Grant was edging closer and closer. 
Parallels and aj^proaches were constructed ; mines sunk and countermining 
done. Several attempts were made to relieve Vicksburg, but the bulldog-like 
grip of Grant could not be loosened, and the condition of the garrison became 
much like that of Cornwallis at Yorktown in 1781 

FALL OF VICKSBURG. 

The defenders displayed the greatest bravery and endurance, and held out 
until the time came when it was apparent that it was a choice between surrender 
and starving to death. That man who prefers to starve rather than submit to 
a magnanimous foe is a fool. Pemberton had 21,000 troops under his command, 
but 6,000 were in the hosj^itals, while Grant had fully 60,000 soldiers waiting 
and eager to make the assault. On the 3d of July, a flag of truce was displayed 
in front of Vicksburg, and a message was sent to the Union commander, ask- 
ing for an armistice with a view of arranging for the capitulation of Vicks- 
burg. Grant's reply was his usual one, that the only terms he could accept 
were unconditional surrender, and he, therefore, declined to appoint commis- 
sioners. 

The commanders then met between the lines, and Grant agreed that the 
garrison should be paroled and allowed to go to their homes, and that the city, 
stores, arms, and supplies should belong to the conquerors. Although the Union 
commander's terms "unconditional surrender" sounded harsh, they always 
proved of a generous nature. There was a good deal of criticism in the South 
of Pemberton for selecting the 4th of July for making his submission, since the 
Union people would be sure to make a greater ado over it. Pemberton's 
explanation was that he believed Grant would be more disposed to give him 
lilieral terms on that date than on any other, and it would not be strange if he 
was partly right. 

IMPORTANCE OF THE CAPTURE. 

The capture of Vicksburg was one of the most important Union successes 
of the war. In his official report. Grant thus summarized the results of his 



41 



BOSECRANS' CAMPAIGN. 339 

campaign : " The defeat of the enemy in five battles outside of Vicksburg ; the 
occupation of Jackson, the capital of Mississippi ; and the capture of Vicksburg, 
its garrison and munitions of war; a loss to the enemy of 37,000 prisoners, at 
least 10,000 killed and wounded, and hundreds, perhaps thou&ands, who can 
never, be collected or reorganized. Arms and munitions of war for an army 
of 60,000 men have fallen into our hands, beside a large amount of other public 
property and much that was destroyed to prevent our capturing it." 

Thus one of the great objects of the war was accomplished. The Mississippi 
was opened throughout its entire length and the Confederacy cut in twain. That 
President Davis felt the gravity of the blow (to which one still more decisive was 
added about the same time) was proven by his proclamation calling into service 
all persons in the Confederacy not legally exempt, who were between the ages 
of eighteen and forty-five years. He also appointed the 21st of August as a 
day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer. 

Grant's magnificent success greatly increased his popularity in the North. 
His praises were in every one's mouth ; he was declared to be the ablest military 
leader that had yet appeared, and more than one saw in him the coming saviour 
of the Union. 

Perhaps it is slightly premature to say that the Mississippi was opened 
from the hour of the surrender of Vicksburg. Port Hudson held out, but its 
fall was a corollary of that of the more important city. It had stoutly resisted 
several attacks, but, realizing the hopelessness of his situation, the Confederate 
cominander surrendered on the 9th of July, and the opening of the Mississippi 
was fully completed. 

ROSECRANS' CAMPAIGN. 

The reader will recall that the battle of Murfreesboro' took place at the 
very beginning of the year. Rosecrans, the Union commander, never repeated 
the brilliant skill he had shown in fighting Bragg on Stone River. He seemed 
to think that that repulse of the enemy was sufiicient to last a good while, for 
he remained idle throughout the several months that followed. There were a 
number of brisk skirmishes and fights, but none was of importance. When 
June arrived without anything of account having been accomplished, the 
government suggested to Rosecrans that it was time he took steps to drive 
Bragg into Georgia and thus secure Eastern Tennessee, where the sentiment 
was strongly Union. 

Rosecrans hesitated, but upon receiving a stronger intimation that he ought 
to be up and doing, he began a series of movements, in the latter part of June, 
which caused Bragg to withdraw to Chattanooga, where he intrenched himself. 
Burnside then advanced from Ohio into Eastern Tennessee, but was so delayed 
that Bragg was heavily reinforced from Virginia. To protect his communi- 



340 ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 

cations, he fell back, however, upon the approach of the Federal army, which 
occupied Chattanooga. 

Unaware of the increased strength of the enemy, Rosecrans divided his 
army into three columns, separated by wide spaces of mountains, and marched 
in loose order against his foe, observing which Bragg determined to overwhelm 
each of the columns in detail. 

The first demonstration was against General George H. Thomas, whc 
commanded the Federal left, and was encamped at the foot of Lookout 
Mountain. That splendid officer eluded the enemy launched against him, 
and effected a junction with the other two corjis. 

At the same time the centre of the three columns was attacked, but the 
assault was repulsed, and the reunited Union army on the 18th of SejDtember 
stood on the western bank of the Chickamauga, which stream was well named, 
for the Indian word means "the river of death." The position was twelve miles 
from Chattanooga, and it was a perilous one, for, as has been stated, Bragg had 
been heavily reinforced, and Longstreet with a powerful column of veterans 
from Lee's Army of Northern Virginia was ajijjroaching. He, therefore, 
decided to make an attemj^t to recover Chattanooga. 

BATTLE OF CHICKAMAUGA. 

The Confederates crossed the Chickamauga, and, on the morning of the 
19th, Rosecrans opened the battle by attacking the enemy's right wing. The 
entire armies were soon involved, and the fighting lasted until nightfall, with 
the result in favor of the Confederates. Although forced from several positions, 
they gained and held the road leading to Chattanooga, and the Union troops 
were driven almost to the base* of Missionary Ridge. 

Late that night, Longstreet arrived with his fire-seasoned veterans. He 
was one of Lee's best lieutenants, and it was arranged that the battle should be 
renewed the next morning at daybreak, with Longstreet commanding the left 
wing. From some cause, the Confederate attack was delayed until ten o'clock, 
the delay giving the Federals time to throw up a number of breastworks. 
Against these Bragg repeatedly charged with his right wing, but was repulsed 
each time. 

Thomas, in command of the Union left, also repelled a sharp attack, but 
Longstreet routed Rosecrans, and, discerning a gap caused by the transfer of 
the Union centre to strengthen the left, Longstreet led his men impetuously 
into the opening, thus sjjlitting the Union army in two. Striking in both 
directions, he threw the two divisions into such disorder and confusion that the 
frightened Rosecrans galloped in hot haste to Chattanooga to secure his supply 
train and the ponton-bridges over the Tennessee. At the same time, he 



SUPERSEDURE OF ROSECRANS BY THOMAS. 



341 



telegraphed the terrifying tidings to Washington that the whole Union army 
had been beaten. 

"the rock of chickamauga. " 

At a crisis in the tremendous battle, General Hood, one of the Confederate 
leaders, was wounded, and a halt was made until another officer could be 
brought up to take his place. Short as was the delay, it gave the Unionists 
time to rally and strengthen their endangered points. Despite this advantage, 
the telegram of Rosecrans would have been verified and the magnificent army 
destroyed except for one man. He was George H. Thomas, the heroic 
commander of the Union left. Long- 
street launched his veterans against 
him again and again, but he beat 
them back in every instance. Never 
did men fight more bravely than 
those Americans, arrayed against 
each other, and never was finer gen- 
eralship displayed than by General 
Thomas, whose wonderful defense 
that day won for him the name by 
which he will always be remembered 
— "The Rock of Chickamauga." 

Holding his heroes well in liand, 
Thomas was ready to renew the battle 
the next day, but Bragg did not 
molest him. The Confederates, how- 
ever, had won a victory, for they 
drove the Federals from the field and 
retained possession of it. Thomas 
fell slowly back toward Chattanooga, 
presenting a firm front to the enemy. 

Chickamauga ranks as one of 
the great battles of the war. The Union losses were: killed, 1,656; wounded, 
9,749; missing, 4,774; total, 16,179. The Confederate losses were: killed, 
2,268; wounded, 13,613; captured and missing, 1,090; total, 16,971. 




GEORCJE H. THOMAS. 

"The Rock of Chickamauga." 



SUPERSEDURE OF ROSECRANS BY THOMAS. 

Rosecrans' conduct of this battle caused his supersedure by Thomas, while 
Beveral division commanders were suspended, pending an inquiry into their 
course. President Davis removed General Leonidas Polk, who was thought to 
have shown hesitancy of action at critical jioints. Bragg, however, was the 



342 ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 

most blamable, for, with the advantage overwhehningly in his favor, he refused 
to permit Longstreet to follow up his success. One of the peculiarities of the 
Confederate President was his strong likes and dislikes. He was a personal 
enemy of Jo Johnston, and more than once humiliated him, but he was also a 
friend of Bragg, and, in the face of indignant j^rotests, retained him in chief 
command in the southwest. 

As soon as the Union army reached Chattanooga intrenchments were 
thrown up. Bragg appeared before the town on the 2od, and, finding the posi- 
tion too strong to be carried by assault, he laid siege to it. The situation of the 
army became so dangerous that great uneasiness was felt in Washington, where 
the wise step was taken of sending General Grant thither, with his appoint- 
ment to the command of the entire West. Abundant reinforcements were hurried 
to the imperiled point, the entire Eleventh and Twelfth Corjis from the Army 
of the Potomac forming the j^rincijial commands. The Federals became much 
the stronger, but Bragg did not abandon his siege of Chattanooga. 

Recalling the advance of Buruside from the Ohio to the relief of Rose- 
crans, it should be stated that he did not arrive in time to take part in the battle 
of Chickamauga, but occupied Knoxville on the 9tli of September. Bragg sent 
Longstreet with a strong force to attack Burnside, the Confederate commander 
thereby weakening his army, which could ill stand it. Grant arrived at Chat- 
tanooga on the night of October 20th, and telegraphed Burnside to hold Knox- 
ville at all hazards, while he gave his attention to Bragg. 

Sherman came up with his troops November 15th, and a week later Grant 
had an army of 80,000 men on the ground, while the removal of Longstreet 
left Bragg with only 50,000. His line, twelve miles long, embraced two eleva- 
tions commanding a view of Chattanooga Valley. Lookout Mountain was on 
the south, while Missionary Ridge on the east was not quite so high. The Con- 
federate left wing rested on the former; and the right on Missionary Ridge, with 
the Chattanooga flowing between. Bragg was justified in considering his posi- 
tion impregnable. 

THE BATTLE ABOVE THE CLOUDS. 

Grant, however, held a different opinion. On the night of the 23d the 
enemy's jDicket lines were forced back and an improved position secured. The 
following morning, Hooker, having already crossed the river, was ordered to 
attack the position on Lookout Mountain. His movements were hidden for a 
time by a dense fog, and it was his intention to stop as soon as the enemy's rifle- 
pits at the base were captured; but, when this was accomplished, the men were 
carried away by their enthusiasm, noting which Hooker ordered them to charge 
the Confederate position. Up the mountain the cheering, eager fellows swept 
with irresistible valor. The Stars and Stripes was jjlanted on the crest and 



BURNSIDE SUPERSEDED BY HOOKER. 343 

2,000 of the fleeing Confederates were made prisoners. The fog still lay heavy 
in the valley below, a fact which has led to the battle being called the "Battle 
above the Clouds." 

DEFEAT OF THE CONFEDERATES. 

The following morning was also foggy, but, when it lifted, Sherman's corps 
was seen advancing against the Confederate right, close to Chickamauga station. 
In the face of a heavy artilleiy fire the Federals pressed on, but at the end of 
an hour they were compelled to retreat. By order of Grant the attack was 
renewed, but another severe repulse followed. Next a general movement 
against the left centre was ordered, and this was successful. The enemy was 
driven in confusion toward Ringgold, to the southeast, while a large number of 
prisoners and a vast amount of supplies were captured. 

General Hooker pursued and drove the Confederates out of Ringgold, but 
they assumed so strong a position at Taylor's Ridge that Grant ordered him not 
to attack, but to remain and hold Ringgold, Sherman, in the meantime, march- 
ing against Longstreet. Bragg had blundered so much in conducting this 
disastrous campaign that President Davis was forced to replace him with 
Hardee. 

RAISING OF THE SIEGE OF KNOXVILLE. 

Meanwhile, Longstreet was besieging Burnside at Knoxville, where the 
15,000 Union troops were threatened with starvation. The town was invested 
November 17th, and the next day some of the outworks were carried. Well 
aware that Grant, after his defeat of Bragg, would hurry to the relief of Knox- 
ville, Longstreet attacked on the 29th, but suffered a bloody repulse. He stub- 
bornly held his ground until he learned that Sherman was close upon him, when 
he withdrew and started on his march to Virginia. The campaign soon ended in 
Tennessee, which was virtually recovered to the Union. 

The reader will note that we have described the leadina; events in the West 
and Southwest from the opening of the year to its close. Once more it is neces- 
sary to return to January, 1863, in order to give a history of the most important 
campaign of all — that against Richmond, which was defended by the formidable 
Army of Northern Virginia, under the command of General Robert E. Lee. 

BURNSIDE SUPERSEDED BY HOOKER. 

Burnside's management of the attack on Fredericksburg in December, 
1862, was so incompetent and disastrous that it was impossible for him to retain 
the chief command. Knowing that several of his generals had severely criti- 
cised him, Burnside sent a list of names to Washington, giving the government 
the choice of removing them or accepting his resignation. Prominent on 



344 ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 

Burnside's "black list" was the name of Hooker. On the 26tli of January 
Burnside's resignation was accepted, and Hooker was made his successor. 

The morale of the grand organization had been injured by its wretched 
leadership, but the material itself could not have been finer. Hooker set 
resolutely to work, and, by the 1st of May, the army was well trained and 
disciplined, and numbered 130,000 men, of whom fully 12,000 were cavalry. 
Lee had about half as many troops. 

Knowing it would not do to remain idle when the beautiful spring weather 
came. Hooker had been carefully planning for another campaign against 
Richmond. He had won a fine reputation for himself as a fighter and skillful 
corps commander, and the hopes were high that he would lead his superb army 
directly into the rebel capital. Everything seemed to be in his favor, and the 
campaign opened promisingly. 

THE NEW CAMPAIGN AGAINST RICHMOND. 

Hooker's plan was to assail Lee at two points. The Rappahannock and 
Rapidan were to be crossed a short distance west of Fredericksburg, and the 
left wing attacked. While this was going on. Hooker's own left wing was to 
occupy the heights and secure possession of the Richmond Railroad. The 
powerful Union cavalry were to ride around Lee's position and cut off his 
retreat to Richmond. This involved the destruction of the railroads and 
bridges over the North and South Anna Rivers. 

This important movement was begun April 27th. The main portion of the 
corps of Meade, Howard, and Slocum, numbering 36,000 men, marched thirty 
miles up the Rappahannock and crossed the stream without resistance. A force 
then moved ten miles down the other side of the river, driving away several 
Confederate detachments, and opened the way for Couch with 12,000 men to 
cross and join the other three corps. Taking different routes, the 48,000 
advanced toward Chancellorsville, which had been named as the rendezvous. 
They were soon followed by Sickles with 18,000 men. 

It was not until the Union movement had jirogressed thus far that Lee read 
its purpose. He hastily called in his divisions, and, on the forenoon of May 1st, 
the Army of Northern Virginia was drawn up in battle-line in front of that 
dense-wooded district known as the Wilderness. 

Exultingly confident. Hooker ordered an advance that day from near 
Chancellorsville toward Fredericksburg. Hardly had he started when he 
learned that Lee was moving against him; he, therefore, paused and threw up 
defenses. His aim was to flank Lee, and, to prevent it, the Confederate 
commander took desperate chances. Keeping up a rattling demonstration in 
front, he sent Stonewall Jackson with 30,000 men around the right of the Union 



DEATH OF STONEWALL JACKSON. 345 

army. Had Hooker known of this daring movement, he could easily have 
crushed each division in detail. 

STONEWALL JACKSOn's FLANK MOVEMENT. 

Jackson carried out his programme with fearful completeness. Without 
his purpose being suspected, he traveled fifteen miles, reaching the road leading 
from Orange to Fredericksburg, on the southern side of the Rapidan. He was 
thus within two miles of General Howard's Eleventh Corps. The men were 
preparing supper with no thought of danger, when the air was suddenly split 
by thousands of "rebel yells," and 
the graybacks rushed out of the, 
woods and swept everything before 
them. The whole Eleventh Corps 
broke into a wild panic, and ran for 
their lives toward Chancellorsville. 
The German division especially, 
under the command of Carl Schurz, 
were irrestrainable in their terror. 

The majority, however, stood 
their ground bravely, and their com- 
manders put forth every effort to stop 
the wild stampede. A partial success 
was attained, and the artillery poured 
in a fii-e which checked the pursuit. 
Fortunately night was at hand, and 
the fighting soon ceased. The po- 
sition of the Union army was critical 
in the extreme. It was squeezed in 
between Chancellorsville and the 
fork of the two rivers. "What fate 

. , . ^, „ THOMAS J. ("STONEWALL") JACKSON. 

awaited it on the morrow r 

At this juncture, the Confederate cause received the severest blow in its 
history. That remarkable man, Stonewall Jackson, was confident that the 
destruction of the Union army was at hand, and he was impatient for the morrow 
that he might complete the fearful work. In the dusk of early evening he 
rode forward, accompanied by several of his staff, to reconnoitre the Union 
position. Passing beyond the outer line of skirmishers, the party halted in the 
gloom and peered toward the Federal lines. Dimly discerned by a South 
Carolina regiment, they were mistaken for the enemy, and a volley was fired at 
them. One of the staff was killed and two wounded. Comprehending tht 




346 



ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 



blunder, Jackson wheeled and galloped into the woods, but before the shelter 
could be reached, the South Carolinans fired a second time. 

Jackson was struck twice in the left arm and once in the right hand. His 
frightened horse whirled about and plunged away. A limb knocked off his 
hat and came near unseating him, but he managed to keep in the saddle and 
guide his steed into the road, where one of his staff helped him to the ground 
and supported him to the foot of a tree where he was laid down. He was 
suffering so keenly that he could not walk, and was carried on a litter to the 




HOUSE IN -WHICH STONE"WALL JACKSON DIED. 

rear. For a part of the way, all were exposed to such a hot artillery fire that 
they had to pause several times and lie down. 

The wound grew so bad that the arm was amputated, but pneumonia 
followed, and Jackson died on Sunday, May 10th. His last words, uttered in 
his delirium, were: "Let us cross over the river and rest under the shadow of 
the trees." 

BATTLE OP CHANCELLORSVILLE. 

The fighting at Chancellorsville was renewed at daylight, May 3d. 
General Stuart succeeded to the command of Jackson's corps. The superior 



THE SECOND CONFEDERATE INVASION. 347 

numbers of the Union army and its compact formation gave it all the 
advantage. It needed but one thing to insure overwhehuing success : that was 
competent leadership, and that was the one thing which it did not have. 

With the weaker army still separated, it forced the Federals back toward 
the river, where Hooker was compelled to form a second line. Holding him 
there, Lee turned toward Sedgwick, who was at Fredericksburg with 25,000 
men. He had a good opportunity to assail Lee in the rear, but failed to do so, 
and gave his efforts to capturing Marye's Heights, which was defended by a 
weak garrison. It was easily taken, and Sedgwick sent a column in the 
direction of Chancellorsville. On the road it encountered some breastworks, 
thrown up by the force which Lee had dispatched to check Sedgwick's advance. 
He was driven back, and the rebels, having been reinforced, recaptured Marye's 
Heights. Sedgwick made a hurried retreat, and thenceforward formed no factor 
in the battle. 

Having disposed of him, Lee turned again upon Hooker. Early on the 
5th, he placed a number of his guns within range of United States forces 
and dropped a few shells among the wagon trains. Nothing, however, was 
accomplished on this day, except that the dry and parched v/oods were set on 
fire, and many of the wounded who were unable to help themselves were 
burned to death. Every horror that can be conceived as to war was added to 
the awful scene. 

RETREAT OF THE UNION ARMY. 

A heavy rainstorm caused the Rapidan and Rappahannock to rise so 
rapidly that Hooker decided, after consulting his officers, to get back while he 
had the chance to do so. The bridges were covered with pine boughs, and, with 
the noise of the wheels deadened by the crashing thunder, the wagons and 
artillery made the passage without discovery. By the following morning, the 
entire Army of the Potomac was once more across the Rappahannock and 
marching back to its old camp at Falmouth, and once more the advance against 
Richmond had ended in woeful disaster. 

The losses of the Unionists at Chancellorsville were: killed, 1,606; 
wounded, 9,762; missing, 5,919; total, 17,287. The losses of the Confederates 
were: killed, 1,665; wounded, 9,081; captured and missing, 2,018; total, 12,764. 

THE SECOND CONFEDERATE INVASION. 

After such a frightful Union defeat, it was no wonder that the Confederates 
again decided to invade the North. Lee was not favorable to the plan, but he 
must have felt that the prospect of success was better than ever before. He 
made his preparations with great care, and strengthened his army to 75,000 
men, divided into three corps, commanded respectively by Longstreet, Ewell. 



348 



ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 



and A. P. Hill. He liad in addition 15,000 cavalry under General J. E. B. 
(" Jeb ") Stuart. 

The northward march was begun the first week in June. Longstreet and 
Ewell advanced upon Culpeper, while Hill remained near Fredericksburg, 
aiming to deceive Hooker as to his intentions. Hooker quickly perceived that 
most of the rebel army had disappeared from his front, but it was a mystery to 
him where it had gone. A reconnoissance developed the direction taken by the 
two missing cor2)s. Unsuspicious of the grand project that was in the mind of 
the Confederate commander, Hooker moved down the Shenandoah Valley, 

taking the same course as Lee, but 
with the Blue Ridge Mountains be- 
tween them. 

lee's preliminary movements. 

Passing through the defiles in 
this range, Lee dropped down on 
Milroy at Winchester before he 
dreamed of danger. Most of his 
7,000 men were captured, bnt Mil- 
roy and a few escaped by a hurried 
flight at night. All doubt now had 
vanished as to the intentions of Lee ; 
he was aiming for Pennsylvania, at 
the head of a powerful, well-organ- 
ized army; Washington and prob- 
ably Philadelphia were in peril. 
The only check that could block its 
way was the Army of the Potomac, 
and Hooker lost no time in moving. 
He reached Fairfax Court-House on 
the night of the 14th, thus placing 
himself on the flank of Ewell. The Confederates, however, held the mountain 
passes securely, and nothing effective could be done. 

On the 22d the headquarters of Lee were at Beverly, ten miles from Win- 
chester, with which Lee kept up communication through A. P. Hill's corps, 
which was between Culpeper and Front Boyal. Ewell, without hesitation, 
forded the Potomac into Maryland, while his cavalry pushed on into Pennsyl- 
vania. 

By this time the government was so ahwmed that President Lincoln, on the 
t5th of June, called by proclamation on the governors of Ohio, Pennsylvania, 




HOBEKT E. LEE. 

Confederate commander-in-chief at Gettysburg. 
(Ib07-1870). 



MOVEMENTS OF GENERAL MEADE. 349 

Maryland, and West Virginia to furnish 100,000 militia for tlie protection of 
those States. Pennsylvania, the one in greatest dangei', was so laggard that she 
asked New Jersey to come to her help, and that little State gallantly did so. 

GENERAL MEADE APPOINTED TO THE COMMAND OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. 

Hooker deserved credit for appreciating his own unfitness for the command 
of the army that was again to fight Lee. He crossed the Potomac June 26th, 
making a movement which threatened Lee's communications, and resigned 
the next day. At Frederick, on the 28th, he published an order to the 
effect that the army had been placed in charge of Major-General George G. 
Meade. 

This was an excellent appointment. Although Meade was born, in 1815, 
in Cadiz, Spain, he was an American, because his father was the United States 
naval agent at the time. Meade was graduated from West Point in 1835, and 
won distinction in the war with the Seminoles and with Mexico. The appoint- 
ment was a sur2)rise to him, but it pleased everybody, and he modestly took 
hold, resolved to do the best he could. 

MOVEMENTS OF GENERAL MEADE. 

rie adhered to the general plan of Hooker. His army numbered about 
100,000, and no braver men lived anywhere. Nearly all of Lee's troops were 
north of the Potomac, partly in Maryland and partly in Pennsylvania. On 
the 27th of June the whole army was at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania ; but 
Lee was greatly hampered by the absence of Stuart and his cavalry. That 
dashing officer was very fond of making raids, and, giving a wider meaning to 
the permission of Lee than that general intended, he was off on another of his 
bold ventures, with no certainty as to when lie would return. It was upon him 
that Lee was obliged to depend for news of the Union army. Receiving none, 
he was on the point of advancing against Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylva- 
nia, when he paused upon receiving the first reliable news of the Army of the 
Potomac. 

Meade had pushed his advance beyond Middleton, where his left was lying 
when he took command of the army at Frederick. This action of the Union 
commander looked as if he intended to cross the mountains and attack the 
Confederate rear. Ewell's corps was at York and Carlisle, but still there was 
no knowledge whatever of the whereabouts of Stuart. 

Lee now attempted to draw Meade away from the Potomac by concentrating 
his army to the east of the mountains. Hill and Longstreet adranced to 
Gettysburg, while Ewell was ordered to do the same. Lee himself lagged in 
ihe hope that Stuart would join him, and because of that, Meade, who was 



350 ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 

keenly on the alert, arrived in the neighborhood of Gettysburg first. On the 
last day of June, he was within a few miles of the town, while Lee was somewhat 
to the north and making for the sanije place. 

Stuart and his cavalry had harassed the Army of the Potomac in Virginia, 
but, unable to stay its advance, they crossed the Potomac, and, moving to the 
east of Meade, entered Carlisle shortly after Ewell had left for Gettysburg. 
Stuart's delay was owing to the fact that he did not know Lee's whereabouts. 

THE FIRST DAY AT GETTYSBURG. 

The two mighty armies were now within striking distance of each other. 
It was yet early in the day when a collision took j^lace between a Confederate 
division and Reynolds' Corps on the western side of the town. Reynolds was 
one of the best officers in the Union army. He was engaged in directing the 
movements of his troops when he was struck in the head by a rifle bullet and 
instantly killed. General Doubleday succeeded him in command, but was 
unable to drive back the enemy. Howard arrived with the Eleventh Corps 
early in the afternoon and took charge of the whole force. Tiiese were mainly 
composed of Germans, who were so overwhelmingly stampeded by Stonewall 
Jackson at Chancellorsville. They did not appear to have recovered from 
that panic, for they fled pell-mell through Gettysburg, with the enemy whoop- 
ing at their heels. Nearly all who did not run were cut down or they surren- 
dered. 

Meade had sent Hancock to take chief command, and, aided by Howard, 
he rallied the shattered corjjs on the crest of Gulp's Hill, behind the town. 
The keen eye of Hancock was quick to see that it was here the decisive struggle 
must take place, and he sent an urgent message to Meade, fifteen miles away, 
to lose not an hour in hurrying his troops forward. Meade followed the 
counsel. Some of his men arrived that night, some the next morning, while 
those from the greatest distance did not come in until the following after- 
noon. 

The line as formed by Hancock extended along Cemetery Hill on the west 
and south of Gettysburg. It was a formidable jDOsition, and Lee, after carefully 
studying it, decided to await the arrival of Longstreet and Ewell with their 
corps before making his attack. Events proved that the decision was a disastrous 
mistake on the part of the Confederate commander. 

When the sultry first day of July drew to a close, the Federal right held 
Gulp's Hill, the centre Cemetery Hill, the left was along Cemetery Ridge, and 
the reserve on the right. This line curved in the form of a horseshoe, with the 
projecting portion facing Gettysburg. Sedgwick, it will be remembered, had not 



THK tiECOJSID DAY. 



351 



arrived, but the force was composed of a hundred thousand veterans who had 
200 cannon at command. 

That night the Confederates were in Gettysburg and a part of the country 
to the east and west. Ewell formed the left and held the town; Seminary 
Ridge was occupied by Hill's Corps, and confronted the centre and left of the 
Union line on Cemetery Ridge. When Pickett's division came up on the 3d, 
it was placed on the right of Hill's position and faced Round Top. 

Most of the succeeding day was spent by both armies in preparing for the 
tremendous death-grapple. At about five o'clock in the afternoon, having 
become convinced that the left and 
left centre of the Union line were 
the weakest points, Lee directed his 
efforts against tliem. They were 
held by Sickles, who made a blunder 
by advancing a portion of his force 
beyond the battle-line and seizing a 
ridge. It was because of this blun- 
der that the first Confederate attack 
was made at that point. 

Longstreet and Ewell opened with 
a sharp cannonade, under cover of 
which Hood's division impetuously 
assaulted Sickles' left. He drove his 
right wing between Sickles left and 
Little Round Top, and was steadily 
succeeding in his j^urpose, when one 
of those apparently trifling things, 
for which no one can account, in- 
terfered and brought about moment- 
ous results. 

Little Round Top was the key 
to the position, and yet it had no real defenders. Had Hood known this, he 
could have seized it without the slightest difficulty. Perceiving its importance, 
he began working his way toward it, and only some extraordinary interference 
could prevent it speedily falling into his possession. 

But General Gouverneur Warren, chief engineer, and his officers had 
climbed Little Round Top and were using it as a signal station. Soon the 
shots began flying so fast about them that they made hurried preparations to 
leave. Warren, however, saw the importance of holding the hill, and told his 




GEORGE G. MEADE. 

The Union commander-in-chief at Gettysburg. 



352 ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 

associates to make a pretense of doing so, while he looked around for a force to 
bring to the spot. 

Fortunately, a large body of reinforcements were hurrying past to Sickles, 
who had sent an urgent call for them. Without hesitation. General Warren 
detached a brigade for the defense of Little Round Top. They ran up the 
slope, dragging a battery with them. Hardly had they done so, when Hood 
made a fierce charge. The fighting was of the most furious nature, and it 
looked for a time as if the yelling Texans would carry the hill, but they were 
forced back, and, pressing their way up the ravine at the foot, turned the left 
Union flank, but were forced again to retire by a bayonet charge. 

Sickles called for reinforcements when attacked by Longstreet, but with 
their aid he could not hold his position. He was rushed back by the terrific 
fighter, and Longstreet gained and held the key-point of the line against the 
repeated assaults of the Union troops. Not only that, but he was resistlessly 
advancing, when more reinforcements arrived and attacked him just as he reached 
a wheatfield and grove of woods on the western side of Plum Run. The Confed- 
erates Avere beginning to give way, when Hood, having carried Sickles' extreme 
left, arrived. A vehement charge carried Hood through two divisions that were 
doubled back on their main line on Cemetery Ridge ; Sickles' left having been 
crushed, his centre and right were assailed, and the latter was driven back. In 
the fighting Sickles lost a leg as well as his entire advanced position. 

The close of the 2d of July brought brilliant, but only partial, success to 
the Confederates. After reaching Cemetery Ridge, Longstreet's men were 
repulsed by Hancock. The Confederate commander fell back to the western 
side of the wheatfield, where he remained until morning. Ewell, impetuously 
attacking the Union right centre at Cemetery and Culp's Hill, kept back 
Federal reinforcements from reaching the left, which Longstreet was pounding, 
drove out the Federal artillery and infantry, and held the works. This was a 
most important success, and, if Ewell could maintain his position throughout 
the morrow. General Lee would have a chance of taking Meade's line in 
reverse. The conclusion of the second day, therefore, left matters in dubious 
shape for both sides. While the Confederates had made gains, they were not 
decisive. Still they were such as to cause grave concern on the part of Meade 
and his brother officers, who held a long, anxious consultation, and discussed 
the question whether it was not wise to fall back and assume a new and stronger 
position. The decision was to remain where they were. 

THE THIRD DAY. 

Naturally Lee strengthened his force near where Ewell had secured a 
lodgment within the breastworks of Culp's Hill, with the purpose of making 



PICKETT'S CHARGE. 353 

his main attack tliere ; but Meade could not fail to see the utmost importance of 
driving out the enemy from his position. He slielled it at daylight on the 3d, 
and sent a strong body of infantry against the intruders. The Confederates 
made a desperate resistance, but in the end were expelled, and the Union line 
re-established. 

It will be seen that this miscalculation of Lee compelled him to change his 
plans. Sitting on his horse, riding back and forth, often halting and scanning 
the battlefield through his glasses, and continually consulting his officers, he 
finally decided to direct his supreme effort against the Union centre. Success 
there meant the defeat and rout of the Union army, for, if the two wings could 
be wedged apart, they would be overwhelmed and destroyed by the charging 
Confederates. 

But the impressive fact was as well known to the Federals as to their 
enemies, and nothing was neglected that could add to the strength of their 
position. All night long troops kept arriving, and in the moonlight were 
assigned to their positions for the morrow. It took Lee several hours to com- 
plete his preparations for the assault upon the Union centre. At noon he had 
145 cannon posted on Seminary Ridge, opposite Meade's centre, while Meade 
had 80 pieces of artillery lined along the crest of Cemetery Hill. 

Pickett's charge. 

At noon the Confederates opened with all their cannon, their object being 
to silence the batteries in front, to clear the way for the charge against the 
Union centre. The eighty Federal pieces replied, and for two hours the earth 
rocked under the most prodigious cannonade ever heard on this side of the 
Atlantic. Then the Union fire gradually ceased, and, as the vast volume of 
smoke slowly lifted, a column of 5,000 gray-coated men were seen to issue from 
the Confederate lines more than a mile away and advance at a steady stride 
toward the Union intrenchments. Their bayonets shone in the afternoon sun, 
and their fluttering battle-flags, the splendid precision of their step, and their 
superb soldierly appearance made so thrilling a picture that an involuntary 
murmur of admiration ran along the Union lines, even though these same men 
were advancing to kill and wound them. 

They formed the division of General George E. Pickett, and no more 
magnificent charge was ever made. They advanced in a double line, their own 
artillery ceasing firing as they gradually passed within range with beautiful 
regular step, which seemed to hasten, as if even with their perfect discipline 
they could not restrain, their eagerness to join in the death-grapple. 

The Union artillery remained silent until half the space was crossed, 
when it burst forth, and the Confederates went down by the score. The gapai 

23 



354 



ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 



could be seen from every ^^oint of tlie immense field, but those who were unhurt 
nnmediately closed up and continued their dauntless advance without a tremor. 
Coming still closer under the murderous artillery fire, they broke into the 
double quick, and it looked as if nothing could check them. 

Waiting until within a few hundred yards, the artillery and musketry 
blazed forth again. Through a misconception of orders, the Confederate 




CUSHING'S LAST SHOT. 



rine had become disjointed, and the supports of Pickett were repelled and 
■d large number killed or taken prisoners, but Pickett's own division came on 
unfalteringly, let fly with a volley at the breastworks in front of them, and 
then, with their resounding yells, dashed up the crest of Cemetery Kidge and 
drove out the defenders at the point of the bayonet. 

Immediately the hand-to-hand fighting became like that of so many tigers. 
Guns were clubbed, men wrestled and fought and struck with their bare fists, 
while a fire was converged ui^on the assailants of so murderous a nature that 
even the daring Pickett saw that every one of his men would be killed, if they 



356 ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 

remained. He gave the order to fall back, and the survivors broke into a run 
down the slope for their own lines. 

Pickett's charge ranks among the famous in modern history, and was one 
of the most striking incidents of the war. The double column wliich marched 
across that fire-swept field numbered 5,000 of the flower of the Confederate ai-my. 
Thirty-five hundred were killed, wounded, or taken prisoners. Of the three 
brigade commanders, one was killed, the second mortally wounded, and the 
third badly hurt. One only of the fourteen field officers returned, and out of 
the twenty-four regimental officers, only two were unhurt. The ferocity of the 
charge resulted in many deaths among the Unionists, and General Hancock 
was painfully wounded, but i-efused to leave the field until the struggle was 
over. 

And all this valor had gone for naught. The Southerners had attempted 
an impossible thing, and the penalty was fearful. Unspeakably dejiressed, 
General Lee saw the return of the staggering, bleeding survivoi'S, and, riding 
among them, he did all he could to cheer the mute sufferers by his sympathetic 
words. He insisted that the failure was wholly his own fault, and that not a 
word of censure should be visited upon anyone else. 

The expectation of the Confederates was that the Fedei'als would follow up 
this repulse with an immediate advance, and preparations were hurriedly made 
to repel it ; but the ammunition was low on Cemetery Ridge, and the furious 
struggle had exhausted the defenders. Day was closing and the great battle of 
Gettysburg was ended. 

THE FEARFUL LOSSES. 

The Union losses were: killed, 3,070; wounded, 14,497; missing, 5,434; 
total, 23,001. The Confederate losses were: killed, 2,592; wounded, 12,706; 
captured and missing, 5,150; total, 20,448. To quote from Fox's "Regimental 
Losses in the American Civil War:" "Gettysburg was the greatest battle of the 
war; Antietam the bloodiest; the largest army was assembled by the Confederates 
in the Seven Days' Fight; by the Unionists at the Wilderness." 

THE DECISIVE BATTLE OF THE WAR. 

Gettysburg has been styled the Waterloo of the Southern Confederacy. 
"Highest tide" was reached by its fortunes during those three first days in 
July, 1863. Lee put forth his supreme effort, and the result was defeat. He 
and his leading generals clearly saw that their cause had received its death-blow, 
and, as one of them expressed it, the fighting thenceforward was for terms. They 
were not yet conquered, and severe work remained to be done, but never again 
did the Lost Cause come so near success. Its sun, having reached meridian, 
must now go down until it should set forever in gloom, disaster, and ruin. 



LEE'S RETREAT. 



357 



General Lee could not fail to perceive that all that remaitifc'i tc> kim was to 
leave the country before overtaken by irretrievable disaster. He withdrew 
Ewell's Corps that night from Gettysburg and posted it on Seminary Ridge, 
where intrenchments were thrown up. The town was occupied by Meade, and 
the dismal morrow was spent by the Confederates in burying their dead and 
removing tlieir wounded. At night the retreat was Jjegun by the Chambers- 
burg and Fairfield roads, which enter the Cumberland Valley through the 
South Mountain range. Great battles always pro^iuce violent storms, and one 
of these added to the unspeakable wretchedness of the homeward march. 
Finding Lee was retreating, Meade sent Sedg- 
wick in pursuit. The rear guard was , o v e r - 




ENTKANCE TO GETTYSBURG CEMETERY. 



taken on the night of the 6th, but its position was too strong to be attacked 
and the Union army took a route parallel to that of the Confederate. There 
was considerable skirmishing, but nothing decisive occurred, and the retiring 
army reached Hagerstown, where it found the fords of the Potomac so swollen 
as to be impassable. Lee, therefore, intrenched, and stayed where he was until 
the 13th, by which time the river had fallen sufficiently to be forded, and he once 
more re-entered Virginia. Meade, fearful that the great prize was about to escape 
him, made strenuous efforts to intercept him, but failed, and returned to the 
Rappahannock, while Lee established himself in the neighborhood of Culpeper. 
A period of inactivity now followed. Both Meade and Lee sent strong 



358 ADMINISTRATWJS OF LINCOLN. 

detachments from tlieir armies to the southwest, where, -vs we have seen, they 
had the most active kind of service at Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, 
Knoxville, and other places. When Lee had considerably depleted his forces, 
Meade thought the prospect of success warranted his making a move against 
him. Accordingly, he sent his cavalry across the Rajipahannock, whereupon 
Lee withdrew to a position behind the Rapidan, which was so strong that 
Meade dared not attack, and he, therefore, attempted a flank movement. 
Before, however, it could be carried out, he was called upon to send two more 
of his corps to the southwest, because of the defeat of Rosecraiis at Chickamauga. 
These corps were the Eleventh and Twelfth under the command of Hooker. 

This withdrawal compelled Meade to give up his purpose, and he remained 
on the defensive. By-and-by, when the troops were returned to him, he 
prepared once more to advance, but Lee anticipated him by an effort to pass 
around his right flank and interjDOse between him and Washington. Crossing 
the Rapidan on the 9th of October, he moved swiftly to Madison Court-House, 
without detection by Meade, who did not learn of it until the next day, when 
his outpost was attacked and driven back on the main army at Culpeper. This 
was jjroof that the Union right flank had been turned, and Meade immediately 
started his trains toward the Rappahannock, following a few hours later with 
his army. On the further side of Bull Run, he fortified himself so strongly 
that Lee saw it was useless to advance further, and, on the 18th of October, he 
returned to the line of the Rappahannock. 

Meade started for Richmond on the 7th of November. The Confederates 
were found occupying earthworks on the north of the Rappahannock.. An 
impetuous assault drove them out and across the river. Meade pushed on to 
Culpeper, and Lee hurriedly retreated across the Rapidan. 

Meade's judgment was that no further advance should be made, but the 
clamor of the North forced him to try another of the many attempts to capture 
Richmond. He crossed the river on the 26th and 27th of November, his aim 
being to divide the Confederate army by a rapid march on Orange Court-House. 
But it seemed as if the flood-gates of heaven were then opened. The rain fell 
in torrents day and night, and the country became a sea of mud and water. 
Bridges had to be laid to connect different portions of the army, and all offensive 
movements were for a while out of the question. The delay gave Lee time to 
form liis troops into a compact mass, so that when the Unionists were ready to 
attack, it was so evident that another Fredericksburg massacre would follow 
that the plan was abandoned. 

In truth, Lee felt so strong that he was disposed to advance himself, but 
was dissuaded by the belief that some blunder of the Union commander would 
give him a better opportunity, but Meade was too wise to do so. On the 1st of 



FAILURE OF THE ATTACKS ON CHARLESTON. 359 

December he returned to his old quarters on the Kapidan. The weather had 
become extremely cold, and both armies went into winter quarters. 

The jH'incipal military movements of this year have now been described, 
but it remains to tell of the operations on the seacoast and of the leading mili- 
tary raids. 

PRIVATEERING. 

The Confederates displayed great activity and ingenuity in the construction 
of ironclads and in running the blockade. Their vessels continually dodged in 
and out of a few of the leading ports, the principal one being Wilmington, 
North Carolina. The profits in a single cargo of a blockade-runner were so 
enormous that the owners were enriched by several successful voyages, while a 
single one would reimburse them for the loss of their ship. Under such 
circumstances it was no wonder that they took desperate chances, and firms 
were organized who paid liberal salaries to the ofiicers of vessels, who adver- 
tised among their friends the regular dates of their departure, and, the worst of 
it was, they were very regular in keeping them. 

The Alabama and other jirivateers were busy on the ocean, and the Con- 
federates strained every nerve to send others to sea. The Nashville was a fine 
steamer that was in the Ogeechee River, Georgia, waiting for a chance to slip 
out and join the commerce destroyers. She had a valuable cargo of cotton, and 
the Federal cruisers were alert to prevent her escape. They would have gone 
up the river after her, but there were too many torpedoes waiting for them, and 
the guns of Fort McAllister were too powerful. 

Caj^tain Worden, of the old 3Iomtor, was now in command of the 
Iloniauk, and he was delighted on the night of February 27th to observe the 
Nashville lying stuck fast in shallow water above Fort McAllister. The oppor- 
tunity was too tempting to be neglected, and the next morning, despite a hot 
attack from the fort, he fired into the Nashville until she broke into flames and 
soon after blew up. 

FAILURE OF THE ATTACKS ON CHARLESTON. 

Naturally the desire was strong in the North to humble Charleston, where 
the baleful secession sentiment was born and brought all the woe uj^on the 
country. General Beauregard was in command of that department, and he 
made every preparation for the attack, which he knew would soon come. In a 
proclamation he urged the removal of all non-combatants, and called upon 
the citizens to rally to the defense of the city. 

A fleet of ironclads was always lying outside of Charleston, watching for 
an opportunity to give its attention to the forts or city. One tempestuous night 
in January a couple of rams dashed out of the harbor, and, in a ferociously 
vicious attack, scattered the ironclads, and compelled a gunboat to surrender. 



360 ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 

Thereupon the Confederates claimed that the blockade had been raised, but no 
one paid any attention to the claim. 

An expedition was carefully organized for the capture of Charleston, and 
placed in command of Admiral Samuel F. Dupont. The fleet, numbering a 
hundred vessels, left the mouth of the North Edisto River on the 6th of April, 
and on the same day crossed the bar and entered the main channel on the coast 
of Morris Island. 

A dense haze delayed oi^erations until the following day, when a line of 
battle was formed by the ironclads, the wooden vessels remaining outside the 
bar. A raft was fastened to the front of the Weehawken, with which it was 
intended to explode the torpedoes. The cumbrous contrivauce greatly delayed 
the progress of the fleet, which advanced slowly until the Weehawken had 
passed the outer batteries and was close to the entrance to the inner harbor. 
Then Fort Moultrie fired a gun, instantly followed by that of Fort Sumter, and 
the batteries on Sullivan and on Morris Island. Then a hawser, which the 
Confederates had stretched across the channel with the purpose of clogging the 
screws of the propellers, was encountered, the Weehawken was compelled to 
grope around for a better passage, and everything went wrong. The New 
Ironsides made an attempt to turn but became unmanageable, two other ironclads 
ran afoul of her, and matters were in a bad way when Admiral Dupont signaled 
for each one to do the best it could. 

After a time, eight ironclads secured position iu front of Fort Sumter, at 
distances varying from a third to half a mile. This placed them in direct range 
of 300 heavy guns which concentrated their appalling fire upon them, the shots 
following one another as rapidly as the ticking of a watch. Tlie Keokuk, which 
ran close to Fort Sumter, was struck ninety times, in the course of half an hour, 
in the hull and turrets, and nineteen shots pierced her sides close to and below 
the water-line. Her commander with great difficulty extricated her from lier 
perilous position, and she sank the next day. 

The fight was another proof of the fact that, in all such engagements, the 
preponderating advantage is with the land batteries. The ships of the squadron 
were severely injured, but they inflicted no perceptible damage upon the forts. 
Admiral Dupont had gone into the battle against his judgment, and he now 
signaled for the ships to withdraw. All with the exception of the Neiv Iron- 
sides returned to Port Royal on the 12th of April. 

This failure caused great disappointment in the North and to the govern- 
ment. Admiral Dupont was ordered to hold his position inside of Cliarleston bar, 
and to prevent the enemy from erecting any new defenses on Morris Island. 
The admiral rejilied that he was ready to obey all orders, but, in his judgment, 
he was directed to take an unwise and dangerous step. Thereupon he was 



FAILURE OF THE ATTACKS ON CHARLESTON. 361 

superseded by Rear-Admiral Dahlgren, and preparations were begun for a 
combined land and naval attack upon Charleston. 

One of the best engineer officers in the service was General Quincy A. 
Gillmore, who had captured Fort Pulaski at Savannah the previous year. He 
was summoned to Washington, and helped the government to arrange the plan 
of attack upon Charleston. The most feasible course seemed to be for a military 
force to seize Morris Island and bombard Fort Sumter from that point, the fleet 
under Dahlgren giving help. There was hope that the monitors and ironclads 
would be able to force their way past the batteries and ajjproach nigh enough 
to strike Charleston. 

Accordingly, a sufficient detachment was gathered on Folly Island, which 
lies south of Morris Island, and batteries were erected among the woods. On 
the 10th of July, General Strong with 2,000 men attacked a force of South 
Carolina infantry at the southern part of Morris Island, and drove them to 
Fort Wagner at the opposite end. The Confederates Avere reinforced, and, in 
the attack on Fort Wagner, the Federals were repulsed and obliged to retreat, 
with heavy loss. 

On the night of the 18th, in the midst of a violent thunderstorm, a 
determined assault was made upon Fort Wagner, one of the newly formed negro 
regiments being in the lead. The fighting was of the most furious character, 
but the Federals suffered a decisive defeat, in which their losses were five times 
as great as those of the defenders. 

General Gillmore carried parallels against the fort, and the ironclads 
assisted in the bombardments; but, though it continued for weeks, the city of 
Charleston seemed to be as far from surrender as ever. A part of the time the 
weather was so intolerably hot that operations were suspended. 

Gillmore, however, was so near Charleston that he was able to reach it with 
his heaviest guns, and he prepared to do so. His principal piece was a Parrott, 
wdiicli threw a 100-pound ball, and was christened the "Swamp Angel." 

The first shot was fired at midnight, August 22d. As the screeching shell 
curved over and dropped into the sleeping city, with its frightful explosion, it 
caused consternation. The people sprang from their beds and rushed into the 
streets, many fleeing to the country. Beauregard sent an indignant remonstrance, 
telling Gillmore that all civilized nations, before bombarding a city, gave warning 
that the non-combatants might be removed. Gillmore explained his reason for 
his course, and agreed to wait until the following night before renewing the 
bombardment. 

At that hour it was resumed, with the promise of grave results, but at the 
thirty-sixth discharge the Swamp Angel exploded, and thus terminated its own 
career. General Gillmore continued to push his parallels against Fort Wagner. 



362 ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 

Although the ironclads could not pass the obstructions to the inner harbor so as 
to help, Gillmore persevered, and finally rendered Forts Wagner and Gregg 
untenable. The evacuation occurred on the night of September 6th. As woou 
as the Federals took possession, they had to make all haste to repair the ramparts 
to protect themselves against the fire from Fort Moultrie and James Island, 
whose guns were immediately turned upon them. 

By this time, Fort Sumter was in ruins, its artillery could not be served, 
and its garrison comprised only a detachment of infantry. Upon being 
summoned to surrender by Dahlgren, the commander invited the admiral to 
come and take the fort. The effort to do so was made by a military force and 
the ironclads on the 9th of September, but failed. No more important attempts 
followed. The result had shown that the defenses of Charleston were practically 
impregnable, and, though shells were occasionally sent into the forts and city, 
the latter was not captured until near the end of the war, and then it was 
brought about, as may be said, by the collapse of the Confederacy itself. 

When the war began the Southerners were the superiors of the Northerners 
as regarded their cavalry. Horseback riding is more common in the South than 
in the North, but it did not take the Union volunteers long to acquire the art, 
and, as the war progressed, the cavalry arm was greatly increased and 
strengthened. One of the natural results of this was numerous raids by both 
sides, some of which assumed an importance that produced a marked effect ol 
the military campaigns in progress, while in other cases, the daring excursions 
were simply an outlet to the adventurous spirit which is natural to Americans 
and which manifests itself upon every opportunity and occasion. 

ONE OF GENERAL STUART's RAIDS. 

Mention has been made of the embarrassment caused General Lee during 
his Gettysburg campaign by the absence of Stuart with his calvary on one of 
his raids. In the autumn, Stuart started out on a reconnoissance to Catlett's 
Station, where he observed French's column in the act of withdrawing from the 
river, whereupon he turned back toward Warrenton. Taking the road leading 
from that town to Manassas, he found himself unexpectedly confronting the 
corps of General Warren. Thus he was caught directly between two fires and 
in imminent danger of defeat and capture, for his force was but a handful 
compared with either column of the Federals. Fortunately for the raider, he 
and his men were in a strip of woods, and had not been seen, but discovery 
seemed certain, for their enemies were on every hand, and the slightest inad- 
vertence, even such as the neighing of a horse, was likely to betray them. 

Stuart called his officers around him to discuss what they could do to 
extricate themselves from their dangerous situation. No one proposed to 



ONE OF GENERAL STUART'S RAIDS 



363 



surrender, and it looked as if they would be obliged to abandon their nine 
pieces of horse artillery and wait until night, when they might cut their way 
out. 

Stuart did not like the idea of 
losing his guns. At any rate, he ^ , . , , ^ /# - ^. > ^'"f 

would not consent, until another plan '*, 
which had occurred to him was tried. 
Several of his men were 
dismounted, and each *^ /^' # 



Ji 




THE SWAMP ANGEL BATTERY BOMBAHD- 
ING CHARLESTON. 



m wab fuinibhed with a musket and 

infantry knapsack. The uniform was 
not likely to attract notice in the darkness, in case they met any Federals. 
These messengers were ordered to pick their way through the Union lines to 
Warrenton, where they would find General Lee, who was to be told of the danger 
in which Stuart was placed. The Confederate commander could be counted 



364 ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 

upon to send prompt help. Fortunately for Stuart, two of his men succeeded 
in getting through the Union lines and reaching Lee. 

At the best, however, the night must pass before help could arrive, and it 
need not be said that the hours were long and anxious ones to the troopers 
hiding in the woods, with the Federal camp-fires burning on every side, and 
the men moving about and likely to come among them at any moment. They 
were so close, indeed, that their laughter and conversation were plainly heard. 

The alert horsemen suddenly observed two Union officers coming toward 
them. Their careless manner showed they had no thought of danger, and they 
were strolling along, when several dark figures sjDrang wp from the ground, 
shoved their pistols in their faces, and warned them if they made the least 
outcry they would be instantly shot. The prisoners saw the shadowy forms all 
around them, and were sensible enough to submit and give no trouble. The 
night gradually wore away, and just as it was growing light, and while the 
Union division on the heights of Cedar Ilun, where they were posted to protect 
the rear of General Warren, were preparing breakfast, they were alarmed by 
the firing of musketry from the advance of a Confederate column coming up 
theWarrenton road. 

" That means that Uncle Bob has sent us help!" was the gratified exclama- 
tion of Stuart to his delighted friends ; " we must take a hand in this business." 

The cavalry opened fire on the Union lines, which were thrown into some 
confusion, during which Stuart limbered up his guns and quickly rejoined 
Ewell. 

stoneman's raid. 

As has been stated. General Hooker at the opening of the battle of Chan- 
cellorsville was confident that he was going to defeat Lee. In order to cut off 
his retreat, he sent General Stoneman, with 2,300 cavalry, on April 28th, to 
the rear of the Confederate army. Stoneman crossed the Rappahannock at 
Kelly's Ford, where his force was divided. One-half, led by General Averill, 
headed for the Orange Railroad, a little way above Culpeper, then occupied by 
Fitzhugh Lee, with a force of 500 men. He was attacked with such vigor that 
he hurriedly retreated across the Rapidan, burning the bridges behind him. 
Averill, instead of pursuing, turned about and made his way back to Hooker, 
in time to accompany him in his retreat to the northern bank of the Rappa- 
hannock. 

Meanwhile, Stoneman crossed the Rapidan on the 1st of May, and galloped 
to Louisa Station, on the Virginia Central Railroad, a dozen miles to the east 
of Gordonsville. There he paused and sent out several detachments, which 
wrought a great deal of mischief One of them advanced to Ashland, only fifteen 
miles from Richmond, while another went still closer to the Confederate capital. 



MORGAN'S RAID. 365 

These bodies of troopers caused much alarm, and a general converging of the 
enemy's cavalry caused Stoneman to start on his return, May 6th. For a time 
he was in great danger, but his men were excellently mounted, and, by hard 
riding, they effected a safe escape along the north bank of the Pamunkey and 
York Rivers, and rejoined their friends at Gloucester. 

grierson's raid. 

During the siege of Vicksburg a daring raid was made in the rear of the 
city by Colonel B. H. Grierson. In this instance his work was of great help to 
General Grant, for he destroyed the Confederate lines of communication, and 
checked the gathering of reinforcements for Pemberton. Grierson, who con- 
ceived the plan of the raid, left La Grange on the 17th of April with three 
regiments of cavalry. After crossing the Tallahatchie, he rode south to the 
Macon and Corinth Railroad, where the rails were torn up, telegraph lines cut, 
and bridges and other property destroyed. To do the work thoroughly detach- 
ments were sent in different directions, and they spared nothing. 

Grierson now changed his course to the southwest, seized the bridge over 
Pearl River, burned a large number of locomotives, and forced his way through 
a wild country to Baton Rouge, which he found in the possession of Unionists. 
He had been engaged for a fortnight on his raid, during which he destroyed an 
immense amount of property, captured several towns, fought several sharp 
skirmishes, and carried off many prisoners. 

John S. Mosby was the most daring Confederate raider in the East. Some 
of his exploits and escapes were remarkable, and an account of them would fill 
a volume with thrilling incidents. General Lee did not look with favor on such 
irregular work, but accepted it as one of the accompaniments of war, and it 
cannot be denied that Mosby gave him valuable help in more than one instance. 

morgan's raid. 

John H. Morgan was famous in the southwest as a raider and guerrilla. 
At the beginning of July, 1863, he seized Columbia, near Jamestown, Kentucky, 
and advanced against Colonel Moore at Greenbrier Bridge. His reception was 
so hot that he was obliged to retreat, whereupon he attacked Lebanon, where 
there was considerable vicious fighting in the streets. One of Morgan's regi- 
ments was commanded by his brother, who was killed. The incensed leader set 
fire to the houses, and, although the defenders surrendered, the place was sacked. 
Then the invaders retreated before the Union cavalry who were advancing 
against them. Their course was through Northern Kentucky, where they 
plundered right and left, and spread dismay on every hand. 

Reckless and encouraged by their successes, they now swam their horses 



366 ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 

over the Ohio River, and, entering Indiana, gave that State its first exjierieuce 
in war. The local militia were called out, but the experienced cavalry easily 
brushed them aside. They knew, however, it would be different when they 
met the regular Union cavalry who were riding hard after them. To escape 
them, Morgan started for western Virginia. When he entered Ohio, the StaU- 
was terrified, and even Cincinnati trembled, but the raiders had no thouglit 
of stopping until they reached western Virginia, where they would be safe. 

The telegraph had carried the news of Morgan's movements everywhere, 
and the determination was general that he should not be allowed to escape from 
the entanglements in which he and his men had involved themselves. The 
militia guarded all the fords of the Ohio; gunboats steamed back and forth; the 
roads were blocked by felled trees, and everything possible was done to 
obstruct the band, who were so laden with plunder that their exhausted animals 
had to proceed slowly. 

It is stated by credible witnesses, who saw the formidable corajiany riding 
along the highway when hard pressed, that nearly every man in the saddle was 
sound asleep. They dared not make any extended halt through fear of their 
pursuers, and when they did pause it was because of their drooping animals. 

Reaching the Ohio at last, Moriian planted his field guns near Bufiingtoi 
Island, with the view of protecting his men while they swam the river. Before 
he could bring them into use, a gunboat knocked the pieces right and left like 
so many tenpins. Abandoning the place, Morgan made the attempt to cross at 
Belleville, but was again frustrated. It was now evident that the time had come 
when each must lookout for himself. Accordingly, the band broke up and 
scattered. Their pursuers picked them up one by one, and Morgan himself and 
a few of his men were surrounded near New Lisbon, Ohio, and compelled to 
surrender. He and his principal oificers were sentenced to the Ohio penitentiary, 
whei'e they were kept in close confinement until November 27th, when through 
the assistance of friends (some of whom were probably within the prison), he 
and six officers effected their escape, and succeeded in reaching the Confederate 
lines, where they were soon at their characteristic work again. 

Morgan was a raider by nature, but, as is often the case, the "pitcher went 
to the fountain once too often." While engaged upon one of his raids the follow- 
xng year he was cornered by the Federal cavalry, and in the fight that followed 
was shot dead. 

Far below these men in moral character were such guerrillas as Quantrell, 
who were simply plunderers, assassins, and murderers, who carried on their 
execrable work through innate depravity, rather than from any wish to help the 
side with which they identified themselves. Most of them soon ran their briet 
course, and died, as they had lived, by violence. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

AIDMINISTRATION OK LINCOLN (CONCLUDED), 

1861-1865. 

WAR KOR THE UNION (CONCLUDED), 1864-1865. 

rhe Work Remaining to be Done — General Grant Placed in Command of all the Union Armies — The 
Grand Campaign — Banks' Disastrous Red River Expedition — How the Union Fleet was Saved 
— Capture of Mobile by Admiral Farragut — The Confederate Cruisers — Destruction of the Alabama 
by the Kearsarge — Fate of the Other Confederate Cruisers— Destruction of the Albemarle by Lieu- 
tenant William B. Cushing — Re-election of President Lincoln^— Distress in the South and Prosperity 
in the North — The Union Prisoners ij the South — Admission of Nevada — The Confederate Raids 
from Canada — Sherman's Advaics to Atlanta — Fall of Atlanta — Hood's Vain Attempt to Relieve 
Georgia — Superb Success of General Thomas — "Marching Through Georgia" — Sherman's Christ- 
mas Gift to President Lincoln — Opening of Grant's Final Campaign — Battles in the Wilderness — 
Wounding of General Longstreet and Deaths of General Stuart and Sedgwick — Grant's Flanking 
Movements Against Lee — A Disastrous Repulse at Cold Harbor — Defeat of Sigel and Hunter in the 
Shenandoah Valley — " Bottling-up " of Butler — Explosions of the Petersburg Mine — Early's Raids— 
His Final Defeat by Sheridan — Grant's Campaign — Surrender of Lee — Assassination of President 
Lincoln — Death of Booth and Punishment of the Conspirators — Surrender of Jo Johnston and 
Collapse of the Southern Confederacy — Capture of Jefferson Davis — His Release and Death — Statis- 
tics of the Civil War — A Characteristic Anecdote. 

THE WORK TO BE DONE. 

Two grand campaigns remained to be prosecuted to a successful conclusion 
before the great Civil War could be ended and the Union restored. The first 
and most important was that of General Grant against Richmond, or, more 
properly, against Lee, who was still at the head of the unconquered Army of 
Northern Virginia, and who must be overcome before the Confederate capital 
could fall. The second was the campaign of General Sherman, through the 
heart of the Southern Confederacy. Other interesting and decisive operations 
were to be pressed, but all were contributory to the two great ones mentioned. 

Several momentous truths had forced themselves upon the national govern- 
ment. It had learned to comprehend the magnitude of the struggle before it. 
Had the North and South possessed equal resources and the same number of 
troops, the latter could not have been conquered any more than the North could 
have been defeated had the situation been reversed. But the North possessed 
xnen, wealth, and resources immensely beyond those of the South. The war 
had made the South an armed camp, with privation and suffering everywhere, 

(387) 



868 ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 

while in the North a person might have traveled for clays and weeks without 
suspecting that a domestic war was in progress. It was necessary to overwhelm 
the South, and the North had not only the ability to do so, but was resolved that 
it should be done. Its estimates were made on the basis of an army of a million 
men. Large bounties were offered for soldiers, and, when these did not provide 
all that was needed, drafting was resorted to. There had been rioting and 
disorder in New York City and other places during the summer of 1863. when 
there was a vicious revolt against drafting, but the government persisted and 
obtained the men it needed, 

THE RIGHT LEADER. 

Another proven fact was that the war could not be successfully prosecuted 
by a bureau in Washington. This attempt at the beginning had brought 
disaster ; but the excuse for this interference was that the right leaders had not 
yet appeared. General after general was tried at the head of the armies, and 
had either failed or come short of the expected success. The events of 1863, 
however, indicated unerringly the right men to whom the destinies of the nation 
could be safely intrusted. Foremost among these was General Ulysses S. 
Grant. With that genius of common sense, which always actuated President 
Lincoln, he nominated him to the rank of lieutenant-general, the grade of which 
was revived by Congress in February, 1864, and the Senate confirmed the 
appointment on the 2d of March. In obedience to a summons from Washing- 
ton, Grant left Nashville on the 4th of the month, arrived on the 9th, and 
President Lincoln handed him his commission on the following day. 

"I don't know what your plans are, general," said the President, "nor do 
I ask to know them. You have demonstrated your ability to end this war, and 
the country expects you to do it. Go ahead, and you may count upon my 
unfaltering support." 

Grant modestly accepted the tremendous responsibility, which placed him 
in command of all the armies of the United States, and he established his head- 
quarters with the Army of the Potomac at Culpe23er, Va., March 26, 1864. 

THE GRAND CAMPAIGN. 

The plan of campaign determined upon by Grant was to concentrate all 
the national forces into a few distinct armies, which should advance on the same 
day against the opposing Confederate armies, and, by fighting incessantly, prevent 
any one of them from reinforcing the other. The armies of the enemy were 
themselves to be the objective points, and they were to be given no time for rest. 
Sherman was to advance from Atlanta against Johnston, who had an army 
larger in numbers than that of Lee; Banks' army, as soon as it could be with- 
drawn from the disastrous Red River expedition, was to act against Mobile; 



BANKS' RED RIVER EXPEDITION. 369 

Sigei was to pass down the valley of Virginia and prevent the enemy from 
making annoying raids from that quarter; Butler was to ascend the James and 
threaten Richmond; and, finally, the Army of the Potomac, under the immediate 
command of Meade, was to protect Washington, and essay the most hercidean 
task of all — the conquest of Lee and his army. 

Orders were issued by Grant for a general movement of all the national forces 
on the 4th of May. Since they were so numerous, and began nearly at the 
same time, it is necessary to give the pai-ticulars of each in turn, reserving that 
of the most important — Grant's own — for the last. 

banks' ked eiver expedition. 

One of the most discreditable affairs of the war was what is known as 
Banks' Red River Expedition. That officer was in command at New Orleans> 
when it was decided to send a strong force up the Red River, in quest of the 
immense quantities of cotton stored in that region, though the ostensible object 
was the capture of Shreveport, Louisiana, 350 miles above New Orleans, and 
the capital of the State. 

The plan was for the array to advance in three columns, supported by 
Admiral Porter with a fleet, which was to force a jjassage up the Red River. 
General A. J. Smith was to march from Vicksburg, with the first division of 
the army, which numbered 10,000 men ; Banks was to lead the second from 
New Orleans, and Steele the third from Little Rock. 

General Edmund Kirby Smith was the Confederate commander of the 
Trans-Mississippi Department. Although he had fewer men than the invaders, 
he prepared for a vigorous resistance. He sent Generals Price and Marmaduke 
to harass Steele, directed General Dick Taylor to obstruct the Red River as 
much as he could, while he made ready to make the best fight possible. 

Fifty miles above the mouth of the Red River stood Fort de Russy, which, 
although considerably strengthened, was carried by assault, March 13th. On 
the 15th, Porter's twelve gunboats and thirty transports joined Franklin at 
Alexandria. The Federal cavalry occupied Natchitoches, on the last day of 
the month, and in the van of the army ; they arrived at Mansfield on the 8th of 
April, several days after Admiral Porter had reached Grand Echore on the 
Red River. 

Meanwhile, the Confederate General Dick Taylor kept fighting and falling 

back before the Union advance, but he was continually reinforced, until he 

felt strong enough to offer the Federals battle. This took place on the 8th, a 

short distance from Mansfield. The assault was made with vehemence, and the 

Union troops, who were straggling along for miles, were taken by surprise and 

driven into headlong panic, leaving their artillery behind, and not stopping 
24 



870 ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 

their flight until under the protection of the guns of the Nineteenth Corps. 
Then a stand was made, and Banks fell back to his old camping ground at 
Pleasant Hill. His intention was to remain there, but his command was so 
disorganized that he continued his flight. The Confederates had already 
chased them so long that they were worn out, while Banks continued retreating 
until he reached Grand Echore, where he breathed freely for the first time, since 
he had the protection of the gunboats. 

Disgraceful as was the overthrow of the land forces, a still greater disaster 
threatened the fleet. Porter had gone further up the river, but returned to 
Grand Echore upon learning of the defeat of Banks. He had to sweep the 
shores continually with grapeshot, to clear it of the Confederate sharpshooters, 
who succeeded in capturing two of the transports and blowing up another with 
a torpedo. The Ked River was low, with the water falling hourly. The retreat- 
ing army reached Alexandria on the 27th of April, but the fleet was stopped by 
the shallowness of the water above the falls, and the officers despaired of saving 
it. The only possible recourse seemed to destroy all the vessels to prevent their 
falling into the hands of the enemy. 

HOW THE UNION FLEET WAS SAVED. 

In this crisis. Colonel Joseph Bailey, of Wisconsin, submitted a plan for 
a series of wing dan)s above the falls, believing they would raise the water high 
enough to float all the vessels. The other engineers scoffed at the project, but 
Porter placed 3,000 men and all that Bailey needed at his command. 

The task was a prodigious one, for the falls, as they were termed, were a 
mile in length and it was necessary to swell the current sufficiently to carry the 
vessels past the rocks for the whole distance. The large force of men worked 
incessantly for nearly two weeks, by which time the task was accomplished and 
the fleet plunged through unharmed to the deeper water below the falls. The 
genius of a single man had saved the Union fleet. 

Banks, having retreated to Alexandria, paused only long enough to burn 
the town, when he kept on to New Orleans, where some time later he was re- 
lieved of his command. The Red River expedition was the crowning disgrace 
of the year. 

THE CAPTURE OF MOBILE. 

After the fall of New Orleans, in April, 1862, Mobile was the leading port 
of the Southern Confederacy. It was blockaded closely, but the Confederate 
cruisers succeeded now and then in slipping in and out, while a number of iron- 
clads were in process of building, and threatened to break the blockade. 
Admiral Farragut, the greatest naval hero of modern times, after a careful recon- 
noissance of the defenses, told the government that if it would provide him with 



THE CAPTURE OF MOBILR 



S7I 



a single ironclad, he would capture Mobile. He was promised a strong land 
force under General Granger and several monitors, which were sent to him. 

Farragut, ftilly appreciating the task before him, made his preparations 
with care and thoroughness. His fleet consisted of eighteen vessels, four of 
which — the Tecumseh, Winnebago, Manhattan, and Chickasaw — were ironclads, 
while the others were of wood. Admiral Buchanan (commander of the 3Ier- 
rimac in her first day's fight with the Monitor) had less vessels, three gunboats, 
and the formidable ram Tennessee. But he was assisted by three powerful forts, 




BAILEY'S DAMS ON THE BED KIVEB. 

with large garrisons — Gaines, Morgan, and Powell — which commanded the en- 
trance, while the Tennessee was regarded by the Confederates as able to sink the 
whole Union fleet. 

The wooden vessels M'ere lashed in couples, so as to give mutual help, and 
with the Brooldyn and Hartford (Farragut's flagship) in the lead, the proces- 
sion entered Mobile Bay on the morning of August 5, 1864. As they came 
opposite the forts they opened fire upon them, and in a few minutes the latter 
began their thunderous reply. The battle was tremendous, and the smoke was 
so dense that Farragut, who was closely watching and directing the action of th» 



372 ABMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 

fleet, gradually climbed the rigging, so as to place himself above the obstructing 
vajjor. His height was such that the captain of the vessel became anxious for 
his safety, since if he was struck, as looked probable, he was sure to fall to the 
deck or overboard. He, therefore, sent a man after him, with a rope in hand. 
Amid the gentle remonstrances of the admiral, this man lashed him fast to the 
rigging. When the increasing smoke made it necessary to climb higher, Farra- 
gut untied the fastenings, and, after he had taken several upward steps, tied him- 
self again. 

The harbor bristled with torpedoes, to which, however, Farragut and his 
officers paid little heed. The Tecumseh, Commander T. A. M. Craven, was hur- 
rying to attack the ram Tennessee, when a gigantic torpedo exploded beneath 
her, smashing in the bottom and causing her to sink so suddenly that nearly a 
hundred men went down with her. The pilot and Craven were in the pilot 
house, and, feeling the boat dropjiing beneath them, both sprang to the narrow 
ladder leading out. They reached the foot together, when the commander 
bowed and, pausing, said to the jiilot : " You first, sir." He had barely time to 
scramble out, when Captain Ci'aveu and the rest went down. 

The Union vessels pressed forward with such vigor that, with the exception 
of the loss of the Tecumseh, the forts were passed without the ships receiving 
sei'ious injury. When, however, the battle seemed won, the lennessee came out 
from under the guns of Fort Powell and headed for the Union vessels. She 
believed herself invulnerable in her massive iron hide, and selected the flagship 
as her special target. The Hartford partly dodged her blow and rammed her 
in return. The ram was accompanied by three gunboats, which were soon 
driven out of action, but the Tennessee plunged here and there like some enraged 
monster driven at bay, but which the guns and attacks of her assailants could 
not conquer. 

Tons of metal were hurled with inconceivable force against her mailed 
sides, only to drop harmlessly into the water. She was butted and rammed, and 
in each case it was like the rat gnawing a file : the injury fell upon the assailant. 
She was so surrounded by her enemies that they got in one another's way and 
caused mutual hurt. 

But as continual dropping wears away stones, this incessant hammering 
finally showed effect. Admiral Buchanan received a painful Avound, and a num- 
ber of his men were killed ; the steering-chains were broken, the smokestack 
was carried away, the port shutters jammed, and finally the wallowing " sea-hog " 
became unmanageable. Tben the white flag was disjilayed and the battle was 
over. Farragut had won his most memorable battle, and the last imjiortant 
seaport of the Confederacy was gone. 

Two days later Fort Gaines was cajjtured, and Fort Morgan surrendered 



THE CONFEDERATE CRUISERS. 



573 



on the 23d of the same month. The land force rendered valuable assistance, 
and the blockade became more rigid. The coast line, however, was so extensive 
that it was impossible to seal every port, and the Confederacy obtained a good 
deal of sorely needed medical supplies through the daring blockade-runners, 
which often managed to elude the watchful fleets. 

The Confederate cruisers were still roaming the ocean and creating immense 
havoc among the Union shijoping. Despite our protests to England, she helped 




MONUMENT TO ADMIBAL PAHRAGUT AT WASHINGTON. 

to man these vessels, and laid up a fine bill for damages which she was compelled 
to pay after the close of the war. 



THE CONFEDERATE CRUISERS. 

During the year 1864, several new cruisers appeared on the ocean, one of 
which, the Tallahassee, boldly steamed up and down off our northern coast, and, 
in the space of ten days, destroyed thirty-three vessels. The most famous of 
all these cruisers was the Alabama, which was built at Birkenhead, England, 
and launched May 15, 1862. She was a bark -rigged propeller of 1,016 tons 
register, with a length over all of 220 fpet Her two horizontal engines were 



374 ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 

of 300 horse-power each. When completed, she was sent on a pretended trial 
trip. At the Azores she received her war material from a waiting transport, 
while her commander, Captain Raphael Semmes, and his officers, who had gone 
thither on a British steamer, went aboard. The Alabama carried 8 guns and a 
crew of 149 men, most of whom were Englishmen. Thus fairly launched, she 
started on her career of destruction, which continued uninterruptedly for 
\wenty-two months. 

DESTRUCTION OF THE ALABAMA. 

One of the many United States vessels that was engaged in a hunt for the 
Alabama was the Kearsarge, Captain John Ancrum Winslow. She was of 
1,030 tons, carried 7 guns, and had a crew of 163 men, nearly all of whom were 
Americans. On Sunday, July 12, 1864, while lying off" the town of Flushing, 
Holland, Captain Winslow received a dispatch from Minister W. L. Dayton, at 
Paris, notifying him that the Alabama had arrived at Cherbourg, France. 
Winslow lost no time in steaming thither, and reached Cherbourg on Tuesday, 
where he saw the cruiser across the breakwater with the Confederate flag 
defiantly flying. 

Winslow did not dare enter the liaibor, for, had he done so, he would' have 
been obliged, according to international law, to remain twenty-four hours after 
the departure of the Alabama, which would thereby gain all the opportunity 
she needed for escape. He, therefore, took station off the port, intending to 
wait until the cruiser came out. 

This precaution, however, was unnecessary, for Semmes, grown bold by his 
long career of destroying unarmed merchantmen, had resolved to offer the 
Kearsarge battle. He sent a challenge to Captain Winslow, couched in 
hisulting language, and the Union officer promptly accepted it. 

The news of the impending battle was telegraphed far and wide, and 
excursion trains were run from Paris and other points to Cherbourg. On 
Sunday, June 19th, fully 15,000 people lined the shores and wharves, and 
among them all it may be doubted whether there were more than a hundred 
whose sympathies were not keenly on the side of the Alabama. France 
was intensely in favor of the Southern Confedei-acy, and nothing would have 
pleased Louis Napoleon, the emperor, better than to see our country torn 
apart. He did his utmost to persuade England to join him in intervening 
against us. 

With a faint haze resting on the town and sea, the Alabama steamed slowly 
out of the harbor on Sunday morning, June 19th, and headed toward the 
waiting Kearsarge. The latter began moving seaward, as if afraid to meet her 
antagonist. The object of Captain Winslow, however, was to draw the Alabama 
80 far that no question about neutral waters could arise, and in case the Alabama 



DESTRUCTION OF THE ALABA3IA. 375 

should be disabled, he did not intend to give her the chance to take refuge in 
Cherbourg. 

Three miles was the neutral limit, but Captain Winslow continued to steam 
out to sea until he had gone nearly seven miles from shore. Then he swung 
around and made for the Alabama. As he did so. Captain Semmes delivered 
three broadsides, with little effect. Then fearing a raking fire, Captain Winslow 
sheered and fired a broadside at a distance of little more than half a mile, and 
strove to pass under the Alabama's stern, but Semmes also veered and 
prevented it. 

Since each vessel kept its starboard broadside toward the other, they began 
moving in a circular direction, the current gradually carrying both westward, 
while the circle narrowed until its diameter was about a fourth of a mile. 

From the beginning the fire of the Kearsarge was much more accurate and 
destructive than her antagonist's. Hardly had the battle opened when the gaff 
and colors of the Alabama were shot away, but another ensign was quickly 
hoisted at the mizzen. Captain Winslow instructed his gunners to make every 
shot count. Tliis was wise, for its effects became speedily apparent. The 
Kearsarge fired 173 shots, nearly all of which landed, while of the 370 of the 
Alabama, only 28 hit the Kearsarge. One of these, a 68-pounder shell, 
exploded on the quarter-deck, wounding three men, one mortally. Anotlier 
shell, bursting in the hammock nettings, started a fire, which was speedily 
extinguished. A third buried itself in the sternpost, but fortunately did not 
explode. The damage done by the remaining shots was trifling. 

One of the Kearsarge' s 11-inch shells entered the port of the Alabamans 
8-inch gun, tore off a part of the piece, and killed several of the crew. A 
second shell entered the same jjort, killed one man and wounded several, and 
soon a third similar shot penetrated the same opening. Before the action closed, 
it was necessary to re-form the crew of the after pivot gun four times. These 
terrific missiles were aimed slightly below the water-line of the Alabama, with a 
view of sinking her. 

About an hour had passed and seven complete revolutions had been 
described by the ships, and the eighth had just begun, when it became apparent 
that the Alabama was sinking. She headed for neutral waters, now only two 
miles distant, but a few well-planted shots stopped her, and she displayed the 
white flag. Her race was run, and Captain Winslow immediately ceased firing 
and lowered his only two serviceable boats, which were hurried to the aid of 
the drowning men. A few minutes later the bow of the Alabama rose high in 
air, and then the noted cruiser plunged downward, stern foremost, and disap- 
peared forever in the bottom of the ocean. 

Cruising in the neighborhood of the fight was the English yacht Deet^ 



376 ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 

hound, which now joined in rescuing the crew of the Alabama at the request 
of Captain Wiuslow. She was in duty bound to deliver the men she saved to 
Winslow as prisoners of war, but, instead of doing so, she watclied her cliance, 
and, under full steam, made for Southampton, carrying forty-two, among whom 
were Captain Semmes and fourteen officers. Semmes had flung his sword into 
the sea and leaped overboard as the Alabama was going down. His vessel had 
nine killed, ten drowned, and twenty-one wounded, while on the Kearsarge of 
the three wounded only one died. A demand was made upon the English 
government for the surrender of the men carried away by the Deerhound. but 
it was refused. 

FATE OF THE OTHER CRUISERS. 

The Confederate cruiser Georgia took on the guise of a merchant vessel, 
but was seized off the coast of Portugal by the Niagara, and sent to this country 
as a lawful prize. The Florida, while lying in the neutral port of Bahia, 
Brazil, was attacked, October 7th, by the Wachuset, captured, and taken to 
Hampton Roads. This action was illegal, being similar to the attack made upon 
the Essex in the harbor of Valparaiso in the War of 1812. While awaiting 
decision as to the legality of her capture, she was run into by a steam transport 
and sunk. It may be doubted whether this method of settling the dispute was 
wholly accidental. 

The Shenandoah did most of her destructive work in the far Pacific. Aa 
a consequence she did not hear of the conclusion of the war until several 
months afterward, and she was, therefore, virtually a pirate fighting under a flag 
that had no legal existence. Her captain, when the news reached him, steamed 
for England, and turned over his vessel to the British government. 

DESTRUCTION OF THE " ALBEMARLE" BY LIEUTENANT GUSHING. 

Probably no more formidable ironclad was ever built by the Southern Con- 
federacy than the Albemarle. She had been constructed under great difficulties, 
work being begun early in 1863, when, it was said, her keel was laid in a 
cornfield. When finished she was 122 feet over all, and was propelled by twin 
screws with engines of 200 horse-power each. Her armament consisted of an 
Armstrong gun of 100 pounds at the bow and a similar one at the stern. 

The Albemarle demonstrated on the fii'st opportunity the appalling power 
she possessed. The Federals had captured Plymouth, North Carolina, which 
was attacked by the Confederates, April 17th and 18th. They were repulsed 
mainly through the assistance of two wooden gunboats, the 3Iiami and SotUh- 
field, but tlie Albemarle came down the river on the 19th and engaged them. 
The shots of the gunboats did no more harm than those of the Cumberland and 
Congress when fired against the 3£errimac. The Southfield was crushed as 



DESTRUCTION OF THE ALBEMARLE. 377 

BO much pasteboard, and sent to the bottom of the river, while the mangled 
Miami limjjed off, accompanied by two tugboats. The next day Plymouth 
surrendered to the Confederates. In a fight some weeks later with the Union 
vessels, the Albemarle infiicted great injury, and withstood all the ramming 
and broadsides that could be brought against her. She was a most dangerous 
vessel indeed, and caused the government a great deal of uneasiness. 

Several attempts were made to destroy her, but the Confederates were 
watchful and vigilant. She was moored to the wharf, about eight miles up the 
river, upon the shores of which a thousand men were encamped. They 
patroled the banks and kept bright fires burning all night. The crew of the 
ram were alert, and a boom of cypress logs encircled the craft some thirty feet 
from the hull, to ward off the approach of torpedoes. It would seem that no 
possible precaution was neglected. 

Among the most daring men ever connected with the American navy was 
William Barker Cushing. He was born in 1842, and educated at the Naval 
Academy. He was of so wild a disposition that many of his friends saw little 
hope of his success in life. But, entering the service at the beginning of the 
war, he quickly gave proof of a personal courage that no danger could affect. 
He seemed to love peril for the sake of itself, and where death threatened he 
eagerly went. He expressed confidence that he could destroy the Albemarle 
and asked permission to make the attempt. His superior officers knew that if 
its destruction was within the range of human possibility, he would accomplish 
it, and the ram was so great a menace to the Union fleet that he was told to try 
his hand at the seeming impossible task. 

Although Cushing was a young man of unsurpassable bravery, ready at all 
times to take desperate chances, there was what might be termed method in his 
madness. He needed no one to tell him that in his attempt to destroy the 
Albemarle, the slightest neglect in his preparations were likely to prove fatal. 
He, therefore, took every precaution that ingenuity could devise. Two picket 
boats were constructed with spar torpedoes attached, and with engines so formed 
that by spreading tarpaulin over them all light and sound was obscured. When 
traveling at a low rate of speed, they could pass within a few yards of a person 
in the darkness without his being able to hear or see anything. A howitzer was 
mounted at the bow, and the spar, with the torpedo attached, was fitted at the 
starboard bow. 

The boats, having been completed in New York, were sent to Norfolk by 
way of the canals. One of them was lost in Chesapeake Bay, but the other 
reached its destination. Several days were spent in preparation, and the night 
of October 27th was selected for the venture. It could not have been more 
favorable, for it was of impenetrable darkness and a fine, misty rain was falling. 



378 ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 

Cushing's companions in the picket boat were : Acting Ensign W. L. Howarth, 
Acting Master's Mates T. S. Gay and John Woodman, Acting Assistant Pay- 
master F. H. Swan, Acting Third Assistant Engineers C. L. Steever and W. 
Stotesbury, and eight men whose names were as follows : S. Higgens, first-class 
fireman ; R. Hamilton, coal heaver ; W. Smith, B. Harley, E. J. Houghton, 
ordinary seamen ; L. Deming, H. Wilkes, and R. H. King, landsmen. Hp took 
in tow a small cutter, with which to capture the guard that was in a schooner 
anchored near the Southfield that had been raised, and whose duty it was to 
send up an alarm rocket on the approach of any expedition against the Albe- 
marle. It was intended to run ashore a little below the ram, board and capture 
her by surprise, and take her down the river. 

It was about midnight that the start was made. Several of the men were 
familiar with the river, and the boat kept close to shore, where the gloom 
was still more profound. No one spoke except when necessary and then in the 
lowest tones, while all listened and peered into the drizzly night. The straining 
ears could bear only the soft rippling of the water from the prow and the faint 
muffled clanking of the engine. The speed was slackened as tliey a])proached 
the schooner, whose outlines soon assumed form. No one whispered, but all 
held themselves ready for the rush the moment the guard discovered them. 

Sentinels, however, are not always alert, and on this dismal night the 
guard detected nothing of the phantom craft which glided past like a shadow 
with the cutter in tow. This was the first stroke of good fortune, and each man 
felt a thrill of encouragement, for only a mile remained to be passed to reach the 
Albemarle. 

A little way further and the boats swept around a bend in the river, where, 
had it been daylight, they could have seen the ram. Here was where the fires 
had been kept blazing the night through, but the guards were as drowsy as 
those below, for they had allowed them to sputter and die down to a few embers, 
while the sentinels were doubtless trying to keep comfortable in the wet, dismal 
night. 

Still stealing noiselessly forward, the men in the boat soon saw the gloom 
slowly take shape in front. The outlines revealed the massive ironclad lying 
still and motionless against the wharf, with not a light or sign of life visible. 
The nerves of each of the brave crew were strung to the highest tension, when 
the stillness was broken by the barking of a dog. The canine, more vigilant 
than his masters, gave the alarm, and instantly it seemed as if a hundred dogs 
were making night hideous with their signals. Springing to their feet, the 
sentinels on shore discerned the strange boat and challenged it. No reply was 
given ; a second challenge was made, and then a gun was fired. The guards 
seemed to sjsring to life everywhere, more dogs barked, alarm rattles were sprung, 



DESTRUCTION OF THE ALBEMARLE. 379 

wood was thrown on the fires which flamed up, soldiers seized their weapons and 
rushed to their places under the sharp commands of their officers. 

Gushing now called to the engineer to go ahead under full sjieed. At the 
same moment, he cut the towline and ordered the men on the cutter to return 
and capture the guard near the Southjield. The launch was tearing through the 
water straight for the ram, when, for the first time. Gushing became aware of 
the boom of logs which inclosed it. His hope now was that these logs had 
become so slimy from lying long in the water that it was possible for the launch 
to slij) over them. With wonderful coolness, he veered off for a hundred yards, 
so as to gain sufficient. headway, and then circled around and headed for the 
ram. 

Standing erect at the bow. Gushing held himself ready to use the torpedo 
the moment he could do so. A volley was fired, which riddled his coat and 
tore off the heel of one of his shoes, but he did not falter. Then followed the 
crisp snapping of the primers of the cannon, which showed the immense guns 
had missed fire. Had they been discharged, the boat and every man on it would 
have been blown to fragments. 

" Jump from the ram ! " shouted Gushing, as he rushed forward, with the 
speed of a racehorse ; " we're going to blow you up ! " 

The howitzer at the front of the launch was fired at that moment, and then 
the boat slid over the logs, like a sleigh over the snow, carrying the men directly 
in front of the gaping mouth of the 100-pounder Armstrong. 

The critical moment had come, and, crouching forward. Gushing shoved 
the torpedo spar under the overhang, and waited till he felt it rise and bump 
against the ship's bottom, when he jerked the trigger line. A muffled, cav- 
ernous explosion was heard, the ram tilted partly over, and an immense geyser 
spouted upward, filling the launch and swamping it. The enormous cannon 
was discharged, but, aimed directly at the boat, the aim was deflected by the 
careening of the ram, and the frightful charge passed harmlessly over the heads 
of the men. 

Gushing called to each one to lookout for himself, and leaped as far as he 
could into the water. There he kicked off his shoes, and dropped his sword and 
revolver. The incensed Gonfederates shouted to the Unionists to surrender, and 
a number did so ; but others, including Gushing, continued swimming until in 
the darkness they passed out of range. 

It surpasses comprehension how Gushing escaped. Nearly half his crew 
had been struck before the launch was submerged, and Paymaster Swan and 
another man were shot at his side. Gushing, Woodman, and Houghton leaped 
into the water at the same time and swam in different directions, no one know- 
ing where he would come out. Houghton was a powerful swimmer, and, keep- 



380 ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 

ing cool and husbanding his strength, he made shore a short distance below, 
passed through the enemy's line to the mouth of the river, and escaj^ed un- 
harmed. 

Gushing continued swimming for nearly a mile, when hearing a splashing 
near him he approached and found Woodman in the last stage of exhaustion. 
Gushing gave him all the help he could, but he himself was worn out, and, 
despite his efforts, Woodman slipped from his grasp and was drowned. When 
about to give up Gushing's feet touched bottom and he struggled to shore, 
where he sank in a collapse, unable to stir until morning. By that time his 
strength had sufficiently returned to enable him to stagger to a swamp where he 
threw himself down near a path. A few minutes later, two officers walked by 
talking earnestly about the sinking of the Albemarle, but the listener could not 
overhear enough of their conversation to learn whether or not the ram had been 
destroyed. 

Growing stronger, he pushed into the swamp, until he reached a negro's 
hut. There he made himself known, and was received kindly. Gushing asked 
the negro to go to Plymouth and find out whether the Albemarle had been 
harmed. The African departed, and, when he returned at the end of several 
hours, his arms were filled with food and his eyes protruding. 

" Suah as yo's born, marse ! " he gasped, " de Albemarle am at de bottom 
ob de riber ! " 

Such was the fact, for the exploding torpedo had gouged moi'e than twe»ity 
square feet out of the ram abreast of the 2:>ort quarter, through which the torrent 
rushed and carried it down in a few minutes. Gushing remained with his dusky 
friend until night, when he tramped a long way through swamp and wood to 
where an old skifi" rested against the bank of a small stream. Paddling down 
this to the river, he kept on until he reached the Union vessels, where he was 
taken on board and welcomed as deserved the hero who had accomplished that 
which was beyond the ability of the whole fleet. 

Before proceeding with our account of the closing military operations of 
the war, it is proper to record several minor, but important, events. 

THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1864. 

The year 1864 was a presidential one. Although Hannibal Hamlin had 
served acceptably as Vice-President throughout Lincoln's first term, j^olitical 
wisdom suggested replacing him with a man more closely identified with the 
struggle for the Union. Hamlin belonged to the State of Maine, where the 
voice of disloyalty was never heard. Andrew Johnson, as we shall learn in the 
next chapter, was what was termed a war Democrat, who had risked his life in 
the defense of his principles. He was nominated for Vice-President, while 



PROSPERITY OF THE NORTH. 381 

Lincoln, as was inevitable, was renominated for the presidency. The nominees 
of the Democrats were General George B. McClellan, the unsuccessful Union 
commander, and George H. Pendleton, of Ohio. McClellan acted very credit- 
ably when, finding that many believed him opposed to the war, he stated in 
unequivocal language that he favored its prosecution until the Union was fully 
restored. His platform may be described as a criticism of the methods of the 
administration. His position drove away many who would have supported a 
candidate in favor of peace at any price, but he preserved his self-respect, 
although it helped to bring his decisive defeat. 

In the November election the result was : Lincoln and Johnson each 212 
electoral votes ; McClellan and Pendleton each 21. On the jDopular vote, the 
Republican ticket received 2,216,067 and the Democratic 407,342 votes. Of 
course, no vote was cast in the eleven seceding States. The result was 
emphatic proof that the North was unalterably opposed to peace upon any terms 
excejit the full restoration of the Union. Tiie great successes, such as Gettys- 
burg, Vicksburg, Mobile, and the destruction of the Confederate cruisers, as well 
as the rapid exhaustion of the South, contributed very much to the success of 
the Rejjublican party. 

DISTRESS IN THE SOUTH. 

The distress in the South was intense and grew daily more so. The Con- 
federate money had so depreciated in value that a paper dollar was not worth 
more than a penny, and by-and-by it had absolutely no value at all. The farce 
of such a currency caused many grim jests among the Confederates themselves. 
Thus an officer gave his colored servant five thousand dollars to curry his horse, 
and another officer exchanged six months of his own pay for a paper dollar. 
In truth, the Southerners were fighting without pay, while their clothing and 
food were of the poorest character. All the men being in some branch of the 
service, the women had to look after the homes that were running to waste. The 
conscription act was made so rigid that the drag-net gathered in the large boys 
and men past middle life. 

PROSPERITY OF THE NORTH. 

It was far different in the North. The enormous demands of the govern- 
ment for war supplies gave the country an unnatural prosperity. Although 
prices were high, there was an abundance of money, which, while depreciating 
to some extent, never did so to a degree to cause distress. The resources were 
almost limitless, and the conviction was so general that the war was near its 
conclusion, that the greenback currency and the national bonds began to rise in 
value. The real dissatisfaction was in the continual demand fcr more soldiers. 
In the course of the year fully 1,200,000 men had been summoned to the ranks. 



382 ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 

Several drafts took place, and bounties were paid, which in many instances 
were at the rate of a thousand dollars to a man. A good many people began to 
declare this demand exorbitant, and that, if the real necessity existed, the Union 
was not worth such an appalling cost of human life. 

war's desolation. 

Behind all this seeming prosperity were thousands of mourning households 
and desolate hearthstones in the North as well as the South. Fathers, brothers, 
and sons had fallen, and would nevermore return to their loved ones. The 
shadow was everywhere. Sorrow, broken-hearts, and lamentation were in the 
land, for war, the greatest curse of mankind, spares neither j^arent, child, nor 
babe. The exchange of prisoners, carried on almost from the veiy opening of 
the war, ceased, because the Confederate authorities refused to excliange negro 
soldiers. As a consequence, multitudes of Union prisoners suffered indescribable 
misery in many of the Southern prisons. This was especially the case in 
Andersonville, Georgia, where a brute named Wirz, a Swiss, showed a fiendish 
delight in adding to the tortures of those committed to his care. This miscreant 
was afterward tried for his atrocities, found guilty, and hanged. He was the 
only man executed for the part he took in the war. There was less suffering in 
other places. The straits to which the Confederates themselves were driven 
made it impossible in some instances to give the care they would have given to 
their pi'isoners. In the early part of 1864, more than a hundred Unionists 
confined in Libby Prison, Richmond, escaped by tunneling, but most of them 
were recaj^tured and returned to confinement. 

Nevada was admitted to the Union in 1864. It formed part of the Mexican 
cession of 1848, prior to which time no settlement had been made in the State. 
In that year the Mormons settled in Carson and Washoe Valleys. In 1859, 
silver was found to exist in vast quantities, and, in 1866, the area of the State 
was increased by additions from Arizona and Utah. 

CONFEDERATE RAIDERS FROM CANADA. 

One of the most irritating annoyances resulted from the presence of Con- 
federates in Canada, who continually plotted mischief against the North. In 
October, 1864, a band of them rode into St. Albans, Vermont, which is only 
fifteen miles from the border, robbed the bank of a large amount of money, 
burned a hotel, fired into a crowd of citizens, committed other outrages, and 
galloped back to Canada, where thirteen were arrested and thrown into prison. 
The legal proceedings which followed resulted in the discharge of the prisoners 
on technical grounds. General DiX; in command of the Eastern Department, 
issued orders that in the future all such narauders were to be pursued and shot 



GENERAL SHERMAN'S ADVANCE TO ATLANTA. 



383 



down or arrested, no matter where they took refuge. Had these measures been 
carried out, there woukl have been war with England, which would never 
permit such invasion of her territory. General Dix's action was disavowed by 
our government, while the Canadian authorities took care to prevent any more 
similar outrages. 

It has been stated that General Grant planned a forward movement of the 




BIBDS-BYE VIEW OP THE NORTH END OF ANDEBSONVILLE PRISON. 

(Prom a photograph.) 

In the middle-ground midway of the swamp is the " Island " which was covered with shelters after the higher ground 

had all been occupied. 

Union forces early in May of this year, with the purpose of keeping the 
Confederate armies so incessantly engaged that they would have no opportunity 
of reinforcing one another. 

GENERAL SHERMAN'S ADVANCE TO ATLANTA. 

General Sherman, the faithful lieutenant of Grant, was in command of the 
I three armies, respectively, of the Cumberland, of Tennessee, and of Ohio, led 



384 ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 

by Generals Thomas, McPlierson, and Scliofield. General Jo Johnston was 
Sherman's opponent, his commanders being Hardee, Hood, and Polk. The 
troops were less numerous than the Federals, but they were the finest of soldiers 
and were led by skillful officers. 

Sherman made his preparations with care and thoroughness. Chattanooga 
was his starting-point on his march through the South, and by the 1st of May 
he had 254 guns, 100,000 men, and an immense amount of supplies at that 
town. He began his famous march on the 7th of May. Johnston, who saw 
his purpose, confronted him at Dalton, where an attack by Unionists was 
repulsed; but Sherman resorted to flanking tactics, and Johnston fell back, 
crossing the river, May 15th, and taking a new position at Etowah, forty miles 
to the south of Resaca. 

The great risk assumed by Sherman will be understood. It was necessary 
to preserve his communications, for he had but a single railroad line behind 
him. To do this, he had to leave strong detachments at different points, thereby 
weakening his army as he advanced into Confederate territory. Johnston, being 
among friends, was not obliged to do anything of that nature. He could pre- 
serve his forces intact and add slightly to them. By-and-by, the armies would 
be nearly equal in numbers, when Johnston jsroposed to give battle to the 
invaders. 

The Union army marched in three columns, their flanks guarded by 
cavalry, and the columns always within supporting distance of one another. 
The steady advance and retreat went on with occasional brisk fighting. On the 
14th of June, during an exchange of shots, the head of General Leonidas Polk 
was carried away by a cannon ball. Now and then Johnston attacked Sherman, 
but invariably without gaining any important advantage. 

At last Sherman grew tired of continually flanking his enemy, and made 
the mistake of assaulting him. This was at Kenesaw Mountain on the 27th of 
June. The attack was made with great gallantry, but the Unionists were 
repulsed with the loss of 3,000 men. 

Sherman returned to his flanking tactics, which were conducted with so 
much skill that finally Johnston was forced into the defenses of Atlanta. It 
was there he meant to make a stand and deliver battle -on something approaching 
equal terms. His generals were dissatisfied with his continual falling back and 
protested. That Johnston was sagacious in what he did cannot be questioned; 
but his old enemy. President Davis, took advantage of the opiwrtunity to 
remove him and place General Hood in chief command. 

Hood had not half the ability of Johnston, but he believed in fighting. 
He assumed Johnston's place on the 17th of July. The news was pleasant to 
Sherman, for he rated Hood at his true value as compared with Johnston. 



GENERAL SHERMAN'S ADVANCE TO ATLANTA. 



385 



It had been a long and difficult march from Chattanooga to Atlanta, and 
yet it may be said that Sherman had only reached his true starting-point. He 
gave his soldiers a needed rest, and 
waited for reinforcements. Those 
expected from Corinth, ^^^.^^ 
Mississippi, were routed by 
General 




Forrest, 
but the 
needed 
men were obtained from 
other quarters, and the 
* three columns converged 

upon Atlanta, July 20th. 
The defenses extended for 
three miles about the city, but were 
not quite completed. McPherson 
secured possession of a hill that gave 
him a view of the city, observing which Hood made a fui'ious assault upon him 
on the night of the 22d. He came perilously near success, but, by hastening 
reinforcements to the threatened point, Sherman was able to repel the attack. 

25 



DEATH OF GENERAL POLK. 



386 ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 

In the fighting General McPherson, one of the best of the Union generals, was 
killed. 

The plan of Sherman was to shut off Atlanta from the rest of the world. 
By thus excluding its supplies, it would be starved into submission, as was the 
case at Vicksburg. Accordingly, he began a series of works, intended to be 
extended gradually around the city. This was difficult and dangerous, as was 
proven when two columns of Union cavalry, failing to effect a junction, through 
some misunderstanding, were separately attacked and routed. Among the many 
prisoners taken' was General Stoneman, and the cavalry arm of the service was 
greatly weakened. 

The impetuous Hood made a furious onslaught upon the Union army 
July 28th, renewing it several times, but was defeated with heavy loss in each 
instance. Sherman, through the failure of one of his generals to reach his 
assigned position in time, narrowly missed bagging Hood and his whole army. 

FALL OF ATLANTA. 

But Sherman displayed masterly generalshij? by so manoeuvring as to 
draw Hood away from the defenses and by thrusting his army between the 
corps of Hardee and Atlanta. The only escape now for the Confederates was 
to abandon the city, which was done on the 1st of September, many of the 
citizens going with the retiring army. At nine o'clock the next morning 
General Slocum, at the head of a strong reconnoitering column, rode into 
Atlanta, and the mayor made a formal surrender of the place. 

The news of the fall of Atlanta caused great rejoicing in the North, and 
corresponding depression in the South. President Davis hurried to the neigh- 
borhood to investigate for himself. He found matters so bad that they could 
not be much worse. Hood, however, was as combative as ever, and proposed to 
attack Sherman's lines of communication. It was a dangerous proceeding, but 
Davis consented. On his way back to Richmond he stopped at Macon and 
made a speech, in which he announced the plans of Hood. This speech was 
published in the Southern papers, reached the North, where it was republished, 
and in due time these papers went to Sherman. It can well be understood that 
Davis' speech proved "mighty interesting" reading to the Union commander. 

FAILURE OF HOOd's PLAN FOR THE RELIEF OF GEORGIA. 

Hood's plan was simple. He proposed to march into Tennessee, and, by 
threatening Sherman's communications, compel him to withdraw from Georgia. 
But Sherman was not to be caught thus easily. He followed Hood to the north 
of the Chattahoochee, and, then letting him go whither he chose, turned back to 
Atlanta. Hood kept right on through northern Alabama, and advanced 



SHERMAN'S MARCH FROM ATLANTA TO THE SEA. 387 

against Nashville. General Thomas had been sent by Sherman from Atlanta, 
with the Army of the Cumberland, to look after Hood. General Schofield, in 
command in the southern part of the State, fell back to Franklin, eighteen miles 
south of Nashville, where he was attacked November 30th by Hood. It was a 
savage battle, but the Confederates were held in check until night, when Schofield 
retreated across the river, and took refuge in Nashville. There General Thomas 
gathered all his troops, and threw up a line of intrenchments to the south of 
the city. Hood appeared in front of them December 2d, and began building 
works and counter batteries. He was certain of capturing the place and its 
defenders by regular siege operations. Never did the genius of Thomas shine 
more brilliantly than at the siege of Nashville. He industriously gathered 
reinforcements, perfected his defenses, and refused to move until fully prejiared. 
The whole country became impatient; even General Grant sent him urgent 
messages, and at one time issued an order for his removal. But Thomas could 
not be shaken from his purpose. Not until December loth did he feel himself 
ready to strike, and then he did it with the might of a descending avalanche. 
He sallied forth, captured several redoubts, and drove back the Confederates for 
a number of miles. He renewed the battle on the 16th, and utterly routed 
Hood's army. The panic-stricken trooj^s fled in confusion, drawing Forrest 
and his cavalry into the disorganized flight, while Thomas vigorously pursued 
until the fugitives scrambled over Duck River toward the Tennessee, which ■^as 
crossed on the 27th of December. 

Hood's army was virtually destroyed. He lost more than 13,000 prisoners, 
including several general officers, and many guns, while more than 2,000 
desertei-s joined Thomas. The disgusted Hood asked to be relieved of his 
command, and Dick Taylor, who had defeated Banks some months before iii 
Texas, assumed his place, but he really was left with no army to command. 
The proud host which had promised so much existed no longer. The Rock 
of Chickamauga had fallen upon it and ground it to powder, 

Sherman's march from Atlanta to the sea. 
Sherman proved his confidence in Thomas by not waiting for him to com- 
plete his wonderful task, before beginning his march from Atlanta to the sea, 
300 miles distant. Since it was impossible to maintain the long and increasing 
slender line of communications behind him, Sherman made no effort to do so. 
He "cut loose" entirely, proposing to live off" the granary of the South, through 
which his 60,000 veterans began their famous tramp. Weeks passed, during 
which the national government heard not a word from Sherman, except such 
as filtered through the Confederate lines, and which was always tinctured by 
the hopes of the enemy. There were continual rumors of the Union army 



588 ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 

meeting "a lion in its path," and of its being overwhelmed by disaster, but 
nothing of a positive nature was learned, and naturally there was considerable 
uneasiness, though Grant knew Sherman too well to feel any distrust of his 
success. 

At the beginning of his march, Sherman aimed to deceive the enemy as 
to his real destination. The secret was shared only with his corps commanders 
and General Kilpatrick, leader of the cavalry. The advance was in two 
columns, the right under General Howard and the left under General Slocum. 
Atlanta was burned on the night of November 1.5th, and Sherman himself rode 
out from the city the next day with the left wing. 

It was impossible for the Confederates to present any serious opposition to 
the invaders. Frantic appeals were issued to the South to rise and crush the 
enemy, but they accomplished nothing. The bands of militia were brushed 
aside like so many children, and the march "From Atlanta to the Sea" was 
simply a huge picnic for Sherman and his army. The opening of the 
Mississippi had sliced off the left limb of the Southern Confederacy, and 
Sherman was now boring his way through the heart. 

Milledgeville, the capital of the State, was reached on the 21st, but before 
the Federals arrived the Legislature adjourned precipitately and took to its 
heels. Governor Brown and most of the members ran to Augusta, which was 
surrendered two days later, plundered, and partly burned. Kilpatrick made a 
demonstration against Macon, and could easily have captured it, but his move- 
ment was intended only as a feint. Rightly surmising by this time that the 
seacoast was Sherman's destination. General Hardee did all he could to obstruct 
the roads leading thither, but he was powerless to check the invaders. Thousands 
of negroes followed the army, singing the "Day of Jubilee has Come," but 
many of the poor people perished amid the dismal wastes and barrens of 
Eastern Georgia. 

Finally Sherman passed down the peninsula formed by the Ogeechee and 
Sdvannah Rivers and approached Savannah. The enemy were easily driven from 
their field-works, and by December 10th all the Confederates were forced into 
their lines and the whole Union army was in front of Savannah. The 300 
miles had been passed in twenty-five days and the listening ears could now hear 
the faint boom of the distant Atlantic breakers. 

But Hardee was in Savannah with 15,000 men, capable of offering a strong 
defense. To meet his heavy cannon, Sherman had only field artillery, and, 
initead of making a direct attack, which would have involved considerable loss 
of life, he decided to starve the garrison to terms. Admiral Dahlgren was lying 
off the coast, but the mouth of the river was commanded by Fort McAllister, 
at.d it was dangerous work to attempt to communicate with the Union fleet. 



PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S UNIQUE CHRISTMAS GIFT. 



389 



Sherman sent off three scouts, who paddled cautiously down the river at night, 
hiding in the rice-fields by day, until they finally succeeded in attracting the 
notice of a gunboat which ran in and jjicked them up. The glorious news was 
carried to Admiral Dahlgren, who immediately dispatched it North, where, as 
may be supjDOsed, it caused unbounded rejoicing. 

Fort McAllister, fifteen miles below the city, was such an obstacle to the 
co-operation of the fleet that Sherman determined to capture it. It was taken 
with a rush on the 13th of December, and the way 02Dened for a supply of am- 
munition and heavy guns from Hil- 
ton Head. General Forster, the 
Union commander of that depart- 
ment, was ordered to occupy the rail- 
road connecting Savannah and 
Charleston. When that should be 
done, Savannah would be completely 
invested. 

PRESIDENT LliSrCOLN's UNIQUE 
CHRISTMAS GIFT. 

On the 17th, Sherman demand- 
ed the surrender of the city. Hardee 
refused and Sherman prepared to 
bombard it. But the Confederates, 
who still had control of Savannah 
River, retreated across that stream 
on the night of the 20th, and 
tramped into South Carolina. Sher- 
man entered the city the next day 
and wrote at once to President Lin- 
coln : " I beg to present you, as a 
Christmas gift, the city of Savannah, with 150 heavy guns and plenty of am- 
munition ; also about 25,000 bales of cotton." It was a unique Christmas gift 
indeed, and President Lincoln sent back the thanks of the government and 
nation to the Union commander, his officers and soldiers. 

One pleasing feature of Sherman's entrance into Savannah was the wide- 
spread Union sentiment which manifested itself among the citizens. They were 
tired of the war and glad to see this evidence that its close was near. They did 
not destroy their cotton or property, but were quite willing to turn it over to 
their conquerors. General Geary was appointed commandant and ruled with 
tact and kindness. Here we will leave Sherman for a time, and give our atten- 




WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHEBMAN. 
(1820-1891.) 



390 ADMINIS2 RATION OF LINCOLN. 

tion to the single remaining, but most important, campaign of all — that of 
General Grant against Lee. 

grant's advance against lee. 

When the Army of the Potomac was ready to move against Lee and Rich- 
mond, it consisted of three instead of five corps. Hancock commanded the 
Second, Warren the Fifth, and Sedgwick the Sixtli. Beside this, the Ninth 
Corps, which included many colored troops, was under command of Burnside, 
and was left for a time to guard the communications with Washington. This 
force numbered 140,000 men, and, as has been stated, was the largest number 
ever assembled by the Unionists. 

In addition to this stupendous host, 42,000 troops were in and about Wash- 
ington, 31,000 in West Virginia, and 59,000 in the department of Virginia and 
North Carolina. In South Carolina, Georgia, and at other points were 38,000. 
General Lee had less than 58,000 under his immediate command, and the whole 
number of Confederates in the region threatened by Grant's 310,000 was about 
125,000. 

General Meade retained command of the Army of the Potomac, and the 
cavalry corps was under General Philip H. Sheridan. Best of all, the veterans 
were now inspired by a feeling of confidence to which they had long been 
strangers. They felt that they had a commander at last who was competent to 
lead them to victory. 

Lee was acting on the defensive and held a powerful position. Longstreet 
was at Gordonsville, Ewell on the Rapidan, and A. P. Hill at Orange Court- 
House. The Rapidan itself was held by small bodies of troops, whose duty it 
was to keep watch of the movements of the Union army. 

Grant's i)lan was to advance directly to Richmond. He intended to cross 
the Rapidan, attack Lee's right, cut his communications, and comjjel him to 
fight. At the same time Butler was to ascend the James from Fort Monroe, 
seize City Point, and, advancing along the south bank of the river, cut the Con- 
federate communications south of the James, and, if possible, cajiture Peters- 
burg. 

If Grant succeeded in defeating Lee, he intended to follow him to Rich- 
mond. If he failed, lie meant to transfer his whole army to the southern side 
of the James, using Butler's column to cover the movement, and attack from 
that quarter. At the same time. General Sigel was to organize his army into 
two expeditions, one under Genei'al Crook in the Kanawha Valley, and the 
other commanded by himself in the Shenandoah Valley. The object of this 
campaign was to cut the Central Railroad and the Virginia and Tennessee Road, 



WOUNDING OF GENERAL LONGSTREET. 391 

Since the bulk of Lee's supplies were received over these lines, the success of the 
plan would inflict a mortal blow upon the Confederate army. 

The Array of the Potomac began moving, May 3d, at midnight. The 
advance was in two columns. The right, including Warren's and Sedgwick's 
Corps, crossed the Ilajjidan at Gerraania Ford, and the left, Hancock's Corps, 
made the passage at Ely's Ford, six miles below. On the following night, the 
bivouac was between the Rapidan and Chancellorsville. 

THE BATTLES IN THE W^ILDERNESS. 

Reading Grant's purpose, Lee determined to attack him in the dense, 
wooded country known as the Wilderness, where it would be imjjossible for the 
Union commander to use his artillery. Acting promptly, a furious assault was 
made and the Confederates attained considerable success. The ground was 
unfavorable for the Unionists, but Grant did not shrink. His line was five 
miles long and mostly within the woods, where he could use neither cavalry 
nor artillery with effect ; but he made his attack with such vehemence that after 
several hours of terrific fighting he drove the flying Confederates back almost 
to the headquarters of Lee, where Longstreet saved the army from overthrow 
and re-established the line. 

WOUNDING OF GENERAL LONGSTREET. 

Before noon the next day, Longstreet forced Hancock's left to the Bi'ock 
Road and determined to seize the latter. Had he done so, another disastrous 
defeat might have been added to those suffered by tlie Army of the Potomac at 
the hands of Lee. Longstreet was in high spirits and determined to lead the 
movement in j^erson. While riding forward, he met General Jenkins, who was 
also exultant over what seemed certain success. The two stopped to shake hands, 
and when doing so, they and their escorts were mistaken by a body of Confederate 
troops for Union cavalry and fired upon. Longstreet waved his hand and 
shouted to the men to stop firing. Tliey did so, but Jenkins had already been 
killed and Longstreet himself was shot in the throat. He fell fi'om his saddle 
and lay beside the body of Jenkins. He was believed to be dead, but, showing 
signs of life, was placed on a litter and carried to the rear, the soldiers cheer- 
ing as he was borne past. The reader will recall the strange wounding of 
Stonewall Jackson, under almost similar circumstances, by his own men. 
Longstreet recovered in time to take a leading part in the closing incidents of 
the war. 

This occurrence caused a feeling akin to dismay in the Confederate ranks, 
and defeated the movement that was about to be undertaken. General Lee was 
so disturbed that he placed himself at the head of a Texas brigade, with the 



392 ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 

resolve to lead it in a charge that should be decisive, but his men would not 
permit, and compelled him to resume his place at the rear. 

Grant's position was too strong to be carried and Lee was equally secure. 
Meanwhile Grant carefully hunted for a weak sjjot in his enemy's line, and 
decided that Spottsylvania Court-House was the place, and thither he marched 
his army on the night of May 7th. 

While this movement was in progress, Sheridan and his cavalry made a 
dash toward Richmond in the effort to cut Lee's communications. The vigilant 
Stuart intercepted them at Yellow Tavern, within seven miles of the city, and 
compelled Sheridan to return, but in the fighting Stuart received a wound 
from which he died the next day. 

When Grant's advance reached Spottsylvania Court-House, the Confederates 
were in possession, and repulsed the attempt to drive them out. While the 
pre2)arations for renewing the battle were going on, General Sedgwick was 
struck in the head by a Confederate sharpshooter and instantly killed. 

grant's repulse at cold harbor. 

A series of flank movements followed, with fierce fighting, in which the 
Union loss was great. Reinforcements were sent to Grant, and nothing could 
deter his resolution to drive Lee to the wall. At Cold Harbor, on June 3d, 
however, the Union commander received one of the most bloody repulses of the 
war, suffering a loss of ten thousand in the space of less than half an hour, and 
his losses from the Rapidan to the Chickahominy — whither he moved his army 
— equaled the whole number of men in Lee's army. The latter was within the 
defenses of Richmond, of which the centre was Cold Harbor. Having much 
shorter lines, the Confederates were able to anticipate the movements of the 
Army of the Potomac and present a defiant front at all times. 

Meanwhile matters had gone wrong in the Shenandoah Valley. On the 
15th of May, Sigel was utterly routed by Breckinridge. The Union officer 
failed so badly that he was superseded by Hunter, who made just as wretched 
a failure. The 15,000 troops under Breckinridge were sent to reinforce Lee, 
when, had Sigel and Hunter done their duty, this force would have been 
compelled to stay in the Shenandoah Valley. 

Another movement that was meant to help Grant materially was that of 
Butler, who was to threaten Richmond by water, while Grant and Meade were 
assailing the city in front. But Butler was outgeneraled by Beaui-egard, who 
succeeded in "bottling him up," as Grant expressed it, at Bermuda Hundred, a 
peninsula formed by the James, twenty miles below Richmond. There Butler 
was held helpless, while Beauregard sent a small part of his meagre force to 
reinforce Lee. 



GRANT'S REPULSE AT COLD HARBOR. 



393 



The terrible repulse which Grant received at Cold Harbor convinced him 
that it was only throwing away life to persist in the campaign against Richmond 
by the " overland " route. With characteristic decision, he decided to move his 
army to the front of Petersburg and thus shut off Lee's communication with the 
South. Holding his position in front of the Confederate leader until June 12th, 




OENEBAL LEE DASHES TO THE PKOMT TO LEAD THE TEXANS' CHAHGE. 

Grant crossed the Chickahominy and advanced to City Point. Passing the 
James on ponton-bridges, he marched toward Petersburg, where the army 
arrived on the loth. The next day the Army of the Potomac was south of the 
James. Petersburg was immediately attacked, but the defenders repelled every 
assault. The next day, Lee's whole army entered the breastworks of the town. 
After repeated attacks by the Unionists, Grant saw the impossibility of captur- 



394 ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 

ing Petersburg by direct attack and he began its siege. Several times the Con- 
federates made sallies against threatening movements and drove the Federals 
from the positions that had been gained at no little loss of life. 

Early in July, Grant consented to allow Lieutenant-Colonel Pleasant, of a 
Pennsylvania regiment belonging to Burnside's corjDS, to run a mine under one 
of the approaches to the enemy's intrenchments before Petersburg. It was 
believed, apparently with reason, that the explosion would open a gap in the 
line through which the Federals might make a dash and capture the town before 
the defenders could rally from their confusion. 

The mine was laid and four tons of powder were fired at daylight on the 
morning of July 30th. A cavity was opened by the stupendous explosion, 200 
feet long, 60 feet wide, and 30 feet deep. Instantly, the Union batteries opened 
on those of the enemy, silenced them, and the assaulting column charged. The 
dreadful mistake was made by the men of halting in the cavity for shelter. The 
troops sent to their help also stojjped and huddled together, seeing which the 
terrified gunners ran back to their abandoned pieces and oj^ened upon the dis- 
organized mass in the pit. The slaughter continued until the Confederate offi- 
cers sickened at the sight and ordered it stopped. The horrible business resulted 
in the loss of nearly 1,000 prisoners and 3,000 killed and wounded. 

GENERAL EARLY's RAIDS. 

Since the entire Army of the Potomac was in front of Petersburg, the Con- 
federates took advantage of the opportunity to give Washington another scare, 
in the hope, also, of compelling Grant to withdraw a considerable body of troops 
from before Richmond. General Early was sent thither with 8,000 men by 
General Lee, with orders to attack the Federals in the valley. Sigel, whose 
great forte was that of retreating, fell back before the advance of Early, crossed 
the Potomac, and took position on Maryland Heights. Early moved up the 
Monocacy into Maryland, causing great alarm in Washington. The President 
called upon Pennsylvania, New York, and Massachusetts for militia with which 
to repel the invasion. They were placed under the command of General Lew 
Wallace, who was defeated at Monocacy Junction, July 9th. Early attacked 
Rockville, fourteen miles west of Washington, and Colonel Harry Gilmor, him- 
self a citizen of Baltimore, cut the communications between that city and Phila- 
delphia. He captured a railway train, and among his prisoners was General 
Franklin, who was wounded and on his way north. The loose 3'atcli kept over 
the captives allowed them to escape. 

Early was in high feather over his success, and his cavalry appeared in 
front of Washington, July 11th, and exchanged shots with Fort Stevens; but 
a spirited attack drove them off, and they crossed the Potomac at Edward's 



SHERIDAN IN THE ISHEISiANI)OAH VALLEY. 



395 



Ferry, and passed to the western side of the Shenandoah. Early made his head- 
quarters at Winchester and repelled several assaults upon him. 

The Confederate leader had heen so successful that he soon made a second 
raid. He crossed the Potomac, July 29tli, and, entering Pennsylvania, reached 
Chambersburg, from which a ransom of $200,000 in gold was demanded. It 
not being forthcoming, the city was fired, and the invaders, after some hard 
fighting, succeeded in getting back to the southern shore of the Potomac. 

SHERIDAN IN THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY. 

These raids were so exasperat- 
ing that Grant, who could not give 
them his personal attention, deter- 
mined to put an effectual stop to 
them. The government united thei 
departments of western Virginia, 
Washington, and the Susquehanna, 
and placed them under the charge ofi 
General Sheridan, who had 40,000 
men at his disposal. Sheridan, 
whose force was three times as nu- 
merous as Early's, was anxious to' 
move against him, and Grant finally 
gave his consent on the condition' 
that he would desolate the Shenan- 
doah Valley to that extent that noth- 
ing would be left to invite invasion. 

In the .first encounter between 
Sheridan and Eai'ly, near the Ope-' 
quan, a small tributary of the Poto- 
mac, west of the Shenandoah, Early 
was routed and sent flying toward 
Winchester, with the loss of many prisoners and supplies. He was driveb 
through the town, and his troops intrenched themselves on Fisher's Hill, near 
Strasburg. They were again attacked, on the 21st of September, and compelled 
to retreat further up the valley. Eai'ly received a reinforcement, and secured 
himself at Brown's Gap, in the Blue Ridge Mountains, where for the first 
time he was really safe. 

This left Sheridan free to carry out the orders of Grant to devastate the 
valley, and he made thorough work of it. Nothing was spared, and the burning 
and destruction were so complete that his homely remark seemed justified when 



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wtk 


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w-\ 




^^^Hf'" .^^^ 




^jS. 




i 


•V |H|h 


H 



GENEBAL PHILIP H. SHEHIDAN. 



396 ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 

he said that no crow would dare attempt to fly across the region without taking 
his rations with him. 

Feeling that the situation was secure, Sheridan now went to Washington 
to consult with the government. On the 19th of October the Union camp at 
Cedar Creek was surprised and routed by Early, who captured eighteen guns, 
which were turned on the fugitives as they fled in the direction of Middletown. 
Their commander, General Wright, finally succeeded in rallying them, mainly 
because the Confederates were so overcome at sight of the food in the abandoned 
camps that they gave up the pursuit to feast and gorge themselves. 

"sheeidan's eide." 

Sheridan had reached Winchester, " twenty miles away," on his return from 
Washington, when the faint sounds of firing told him of the battle in progress. 
Leaping into his saddle, he spurred at headlong speed down the highway, 
rallied the panic-stricken troops, placed himself at their head, and, charging 
headlong into the rebel mob at Cedar Creek, scattered them like so much chaff, 
retook the camps, and routed Early so utterly that no more raids were attempted 
by him or any other Confederates during the remainder of the war. Indeed, it 
may be said that this disgraceful overthrow ended the military career of Jubal 
Early. When some months later General Lee was jslaced at the head of all the 
military afiairs of the Confederacy, he lost no time in doing two things : the 
first was to restore General Jo Johnston to his old command, and the second to 
remove Early from his. 

The stirring incident described furnished the theme for the well-known 
poem of T. Buchanan Read, entitled "Sheridan's Ride." 

Grant held fast to that which he won by terrific fighting. Petersbui'g lies 
about twenty miles to the south of Richmond, and the strongly fortified Union 
lines were nearly thirty miles in length, extending from a point close to the 
Weldon Railroad, on Grant's left, across the James to the neighborhood of 
Newmarket, on the right. Holding the inner part of this circle, Lee was able 
for a long time to repel every assault. 

The Confederate commander fought furiously to prevent his enemy from 
obtaining possession of the Weldon Road, but late in August a lodgment was 
effected from which the Federals could not be driven. Other advantages were 
gained, but the close of the year saw Lee still unconquered and defiant. 

grant's slow but resistless progress. 

Early in February, 1865, Grant attempted to turn the Confederate right, 
but was repulsed, though he gained several miles of additional territory. Sheri- 



EVACUATION OF RICHMOND. 897 

dan soon after destroyed the Kichmond and Lynchburg Raih-oad and the 
locks of the James River Canal, after which he joined the Army of the 
James. 

But Lee was beginning to feel the tremendous and continued pressure. 
His army numbered barely 35,000 men. A. P. Hill commanded the right 
wing, stretching from Petersburg to Hatcher's Run; General J. B. Gordon, the 
centre, at Petersburg; and Longstreet, who had recovered from his wound, the 
left wing, north and south of the James ; while the cavalry did what it could to 
cover the flanks. This attenuated line was forty miles long. Realizing the 
desperate straits, the Confederate authorities early in 1865 placed the entire 
military operations of the Confederacy in the hands of Lee. 

The latter planned to fall back toward Danville and unite with Johnston. 
If successful this would have given him a formidable army; but Grant did not 
intend to permit such a junction. Fighting went on almost continually, the 
gain being with the Union army, because of its greatly superior numbers and 
the skill with which they were handled by the master, Grant. April 1st a 
cannonade opened along the whole Union line. Lee's right wing had been 
destroyed, but the others were unbroken. At daylight the next morning an 
advance was made against the Confederate works. Lee was forced back, and he 
strengthened his lines by making them much shorter. 

The Confederates steadily lost ground, many were killed and taken 
prisoners, and in a charge upon the Union left General A. P. Hill lost his life. 
At last the enemy's outer lines were hopelessly broken, and Lee telegraphed the 
startling fact to President Davis, who received it while sitting in church, 
Sunday, April 2d. The Confederate President was told that Lee could hold 
Petersburg but a few hours longer, and Davis was warned to have the authori- 
ties ready to leave Richmond unless a message was sent to the contrary. No 
such longed-for message arrived. 

EVACUATION OF RICHMOND. 

The counsel of Lee was followed. Jefferson Davis, the members of his 
cabinet, and a number of leading citizens left the capital that night for Char- 
lotte, North Carolina. The whole city was thrown into the wildest confusion; 
rioting and drunkenness filled the streets, buildings were fired, and pandemo- 
nium reigned. General Witzel, who occupied the Union works to the north of 
Richmond, learned the astounding news, and the next morning rode into the 
city without opposition. The tidings were telegraphed to Washington. The 
following day President Lincoln arrived, and was quartered in the house 
formerly occupied by Jefferson Davis. Martial law was proclaimed, and order 
restored in the stricken citv. 



398 



ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 



But General Lee had not yet surrendered. No men ever fought more 
heroically than he and his soldiers. On the Sunday that he sent his message 
to President Davis, the commander found the only line of retreat left to him 
was that which led to the westward, and even that was threatened. Antici- 
pating Lee's retreat, Grant used all possible energy to cut him off. On the 
night of April 6th Lee crossed the ApjDomattox near Farmville. That night 
his general officers held a consultation, and agreed that but one course was left 

to them and that 
was to suriender. 
Their views were 
communicated to 
Lee, but he would 
not yet consent to 
that decisive step. 
Grant was in 
Farmville on the 
7th, and he sent 
a letter to Lee, re- 
minding him of 
the uselessness of 
further resistance 
and asking for his 
surrender. Lee 
still declined, and 
continued his 
retreat. Then 
Sheridan threw 
his i^owerful di- 
vision of cavalry 

^^^^^K «fl^^' '^iic -J Confederates, and 

^IPI^^ ^^ Lee decided to cut 

his way through 
the ring of bayo- 
nets and sabres by which he Avas environed. This desperate task was assigned 
to the indomitable Gordon. He made a resistless be2;innin<r, when he saw the ini- 
possibility of success. The news was sent to Lee, who realized at last that all 
hope was gone. He forwarded a note to Grant, asking for a suspension of hos- 
tilities with a view to surrender. The two generals met at the house of Major 
McLean, in the hamlet of Appomattox Court-House, on the 9th of April, where 




If 



ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 399 

Lee surrendered all that remained of tlie Confederate army, which for nearly 
four years had beaten back every attempt to capture Richmond. 

Grant's terms as usual were generous. He did not ask for Lee's sword, and 
demanded only that he and his men should agree not to bear arms again against 
the government of the United States. They were to surrender all public pro- 
perty, but Grant told them to keep their horses, " as you will need them for your 
spring ploughing." The soldiers who had fought each other so long and so fiercely 
fraternized like brothers, exchanged grim jests over the terrible past, and pledged 
future friendship. The reunion between the officers was equally striking. Most 
of them were old acquaintances, and all rejoiced that the war was at last ended. 
General Lee rode with his cavalry escort to his home in Richmond and rejoined 
his family. He was treated with respect by the Union troops, who could not 
restrain a feeling of sympathy for their fallen but magnanimous enemy. 

ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

The bonfires in the North had hardly died out and the echoes of the glad 
bells were still lingering in the air, when the whole country was startled by one 
of the most horrifying events in all history. President Lincoln, on the night 
of April 14th, was sitting in a box at Ford's Theatre in Washington, accom- 
panied by his wife and another lady and gentleman, when, at a little past ten 
o'clock, John Wilkes Booth, an actor, stealthily entered the box from the rear, 
and, without any one suspecting his awful purpose, fired a pistol-bullet into 
the President's brain. The latter's head sank, and he never recovered con- 
sciousness. 

Booth, after firing the shot, leaped upon the stage from the box, brandished 
a dagger, shouted "Sic semper tyrannis ! " and, before the dumfounded specta- 
tors could comprehend what had been done, dashed out of a rear door, sprang 
upon a waiting horse, and galloped off in the dai'kness. 

No pen can describe the horror and rage which seized the spectators when 
they understood what had taken place. The stricken President was carried 
aci'oss the street to a house where he died at twenty-two minutes past seven the 
next morning. 

About the time of his assassination, an attempt was made upon the life of 
Secretary Seward, who was confined to his bed, suffering from a fall. A male 
attendant prevented the miscreant from killing the secretary, though he was 
badly cut. The best detective force of the country was set to work, and an 
energetic pursuit of Booth was made. He had injured his ankle when leaping 
from the box upon the stage of the theatre, but he rode into Maryland, accom- 
panied by another conspirator, named David E. Harrold. At the end of eleven 
days they were run down by the pursuing cavalry, who brought them to bay on 




wr 




: 








I. 








% 




1 





THE CIVIL WAR PEACE CONFERENCE. 

Three commissioners rrom the Confederacy suggesting terms of peace to President Lincoln and Secretary Seward in Fortress 

Monroe, January iS6.«;. 



PUNISHMENT OF THE CONSPIRATORS. 401 

the 26th of April. They had crossed from Maryland into Virginia and taken 
refuge in a barn near Port Royal, on the Rappahannock. 

DEATH OF BOOTH. 

The barn was surrounded and the two men were summoned to surrender. 
Harrold went out and gave himself up. Booth refused and defied the troopers, 
ofiering to fight them single-handed. To drive him from his hiding-jjlace, the 
barn was set on fire. Booth, carbine in hand and leaning on his crutch, ap- 
proached the door with the intention of shooting, when Sergeant Boston Corbett 
fired through a crevice and hit Booth in the neck. The wound was a mortal 
one, and Booth was brought out of the barn and laid on the ground, where he 
died after several hours of intense suflfering. The body was taken to Washing- 
ton and secretly buried. There is good reason to believe that it was sunk at 
night in the Potomac. 

PUNISHMENT OF THE CONSPIRATORS. 

The country was in no mood to show leniency to any one concerned in the 
taking off of the beloved President. Of the five conspirators tried, four were 
hanged. They were : Payne, Harrold, G. A. Atzeroot, and Mrs. Mary A. Sur- 
ratt, at whose house the conspirators held their meetings. Dr. S. A. Mudd, who 
dressed Booth's wounded ankle, and was believed to be in sympathy with the 
plotters, was sentenced to the Dry Tortugas for a number of years. He showed 
so much devotion during an outbreak of yellow fever there that he was pardoned 
some time later. John Surratt, the assailant of Secretary Seward, fled to Italy, 
where he was discovered by Archbishop Hughes, and the Italian government, 
as an act of courtesy, delivered him to our govei'nment. On his first trial the 
jury disagreed, and on the second he escaped through the plea of limitations. 

The whole country mourned the death of President Lincoln. His great- 
ness, his goodness, and his broad, tender charity were apjireciated by every one. 
The South knew that they had lost in him their best friend. Had he lived, 
much of the strife of the succeeding few years would have been saved, and the 
bitter cup that was pressed to the lips of the conquered South would have been 
less bitter than it was made by others. The remains of the martyred President 
were laid in their final resting-place at Springfield, Illinois, and the fame of 
Lincoln grows and increases with the passing years. 

Sherman's northward advances. 
The army of General Jo Johnston did not surrender until after the death 
of Pi-esident Lincoln. Sherman, as will be remembered, made the city of Sa- 
vannah a Christmas present to the President. Leaving a strong detachment in 

26 



402 ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 

tlie city, Sherman moved northward with an army of 70,000 men, including 
artillery, the start being made on the 1st of February. Charleston, where the 
first ordinance of secession was passed and which had successfully defied every 
movement against it, now found itself assailed in the rear. The garrison, after 
destroying the government stores, the railway stations, blowing up the ironclads 
in the harbor, bursting the guns on the ramparts of the forts, and setting the city 
on fire, withdrew. This took place February 17th. The next day General 
Gillmore entered Charleston and his troops extinguished the few buildings that 
were still burning. 

It has not been forgotten that Wilmington, North Carolina, had become 
the great blockade-running port of the Southern Confederacy. The mouth of 
Cape Fear River was defended by Fort Fisher, a very powerful fortification. 
General Butler made an attempt to capture it in December, but failed. Another 
effort followed January loth, under General Alfred Terry, and was successful. 
The defeated garrison joined Johnston to help him in disputing the northward 
advance of Sherman. 

There was severe fighting, especially at Goldsborough, but the Union army 
was so much the superior that its progress could not be stayed. There 
Schofield reinforced Sherman, who, feeling all danger was past, turned over the 
command to his subordinate and went north to consult with Grant, reaching 
his headquarters on the 27th of March. Soon after the surrender of Lee, the 
whole Confederacy was in such a state of collapse that the Union cavalry 
galloped back and forth through every portion at will. 

Returning to his command, Sherman moved against Johnston, April 10th. 
Four days later, Johnston admitted in a communication to the Union commander 
that the surrender of Lee meant the end of the war, and he asked for a temporary 
suspension of hostilities, with the view of making arrangements for the laying 
down of the Confederate arms. Sherman consented, and these two commanders 
met and discussed the situation. 

SURRENDER OF JO JOHNSTON AND COLLAPSE OF THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY. 

In the exchange of views which followed, the great soldier, Sherman, was 
outwitted by Johnston and the Confederate president and cabinet, who were 
behind him. They secured his agreement to a restoration, so far as he could 
bring it about, of the respective State governments in the South as they were 
before the war, with immunity for the secession leaders from punishment, and 
other privileges, which, if granted, would have been throwing away most of the 
fruits of the stupendous struggle. Sherman thus took upon himself the disposi- 
tion of civil matters with which he had nothing to do. The more sagacious 
Grant saw the mistake of his old friend, and, visiting his camp, April 24th, told 



!l 



SURRENDER OF JO JOHNSTON. 



403 



him his memorandum was disaj^iiroved, and notice was to be sent Johnston of the 
resumption of liostilities. Two days later, Sherman and Johnston again met, 
and the Confederate commander promptly agreed to surrender his army on the 
same conditions that were given to Lee. 

General J. H. Wilson and his cavalry captured Macon, Georgia, April 
21st, and, on the 4th of May, General Dick Taylor surrendered the remaind^ 
of the Confederate forces east of the Mississippi, at which time also Admira 




THE DESPERATE EXTBEMITY OP THE CONFEDEBATE8 AT THE END OF THE 

CIVIL WAR. 

Farrand surrendered to Admiral Thatcher all the naval forces of the Confederacy 
that were blockaded in the Tombigbee River. At that time, Kirby Smith was 
on the other side of the Mississippi, loudly declaring that he would keep up the 
fight until independence or better terms were secured, but his followers did not 
share his views, and deserted so fast that he, Magruder, and others made their 
way to Mexico, where, after remaining awhile, they returned to the United States 
and became peaceful and law-abiding citizens. The troops left by them passed 



404 ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 

under the command of General Brent, who, on the 26th of May, surrendered to 
General Canby, when it may be said the War for the Union was ended. 

After the surrender of Johnston, Jefferson Davis and the members of his 
cabinet became fugitives, under the escort of a few paroled soldiers. It was 
feared they might join Kirby Smith and encourage him to continue his 
resistance, while others believed he was striving to get beyond the jurisdiction 
of the United States. 

The party hurried through the dismal wastes of Georgia, in continual fear 
that the Union cavalry would burst from cover upon them and make all 
prisoners. In the early morning light of May 10th, Mr. Davis, while asleep 
in his tent, near Irwinsville, Wilkinson County, Georgia, was aroused by the 
alarming news that the camp was surrounded by Union cavah-y. He leaj^ed to 
his feet and ran for his horse, but the animal was already in the possession of a 
Federal trooper. His wife thi-ew a shawl over his shoulders, and he attempted 
to escape from the camp without being recognized, but he was identified and 
made prisoner. He had been captured by a squad of General J. H. Wilson's 
cavalry, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Pritchard of the Fourth 
Michigan. His fellow-prisoners were his wife and children, his private secretary, 
Burton Harrison, his aide-de-camp, and Postmaster-General Reagan, all of 
whom were taken to Macon, and thence to Fort Monroe, Virginia. 

It was a serious problem, now that the president of the defunct Confederacy 
was captured, what should be done with him. He was kept in Fort IMonroe 
until his health was impaired, when he was released on bail; Horace Greeley, the 
well-known editor of the Neiv York Tribune, being one of his bondsmen. He 
had been indicted for treason in 1866, being released the following year, but his 
trial was dropped on the 6th of February, 1869. He passed the remainder of 
his life in Memphis, and later at Beauvoir, Mississippi, dying in New Orleans, 
December 6, 1889, in the eighty-second year of his age. 

STATISTICS OF THE WAR. 

The most carefully prepared statistics of the Civil War give the following 
facts: Number of men in the Union array furnished by each State and Terri- 
tory, from April 15, 1861, to close of war, 2,778,304, which, reduced to a three 
years' standing, was 2,326,168. The number of casualties in the volunteer an4 
regular armies of the United States, according to a statement prepared 1:^ the 
adjutant-general's office, was: Killed in battle, 67,058; died of wounds, 43,012; 
died of disease, 199,720; other causes, such as accidents, murder. Confederate 
prisons, etc., 40,154; total died, 349,944; total deserted, 199,105. Number of 
soldiers in the Confederate service, who died of wounds or disease (partial state- 
ment), 133,821. Deserted (partial statement), 104,428. Number of United 



1 



STATISTICS OF THE WAB. 



405 



States troops captured during the war, 212,508; Confederate troops captured, 
476,169. Number of United States troops paroled on the field, 16,431 ; Con- 
federate troops paroled on the field, 248,599. Number of United States troops 
who died while prisoners, 30,156; Confederate troops who died while prisoners, 
80,152. It is safe to say that the number of men killed and disabled on both 
sides during the War for the Union was fully one million. The public debt of 
the United States, July 1, 1866, was $2,773,236,173.69, which on the 1st of 
November, 1897, had been reduced to $1,808,777,643.40. 

Mention has been made of the frightful brutalities of Captain Wirz, the 
keeper of Andersonville prison. He richly merited the hanging which he 
suffered on the 10th of November, 1865. As has been stated, he was the only 
person executed for his part in the Civil War 

England, upon receiving news of the arrest 
of Jefferson Davis, declared all ports, harbors, and 
waters belonging to Great Britain closed against 
every vessel bearing the Confederate flag. The 
French government took the same action a few 
days later. 

More than a generation has passed since the 
close of the great Civil War, which resulted in the 
cementing of the Union so firmly that the bonds 
can never again be broken. Whatever resentment 
may have been felt lasted but a brief while, and 
the late war with Spain removed the last vestige. 

A little incident may serve as one of the 
thousand similar occurrences which prove how 
perfectly the North and South fraternized long 
ago. The officer who did the most effective work for the Union in the South dur- 
ing the closing months of the war was General James H. Wilson, a detachment 
of whose cavalry captured the fugitive Jefferson Davis. It was General Wilson, 
who, on the 21st of April, 1865, rode into Macon, Georgia, and took possession 
of the city. In the month of December, 1898, while on a visit to Macon, he 
made an address to the citizens, from which the following extract is given : 




HORACE GBEELEY. 

(1811-1872.) 



THIRTY-THREE TEARS LATER. 

Fellow-Citizens : It is with infinite pleasure that I address myself in 
words of peace to a Macou audience. [Cheers.] Thirty-odd years ago I came 
into this town with 15,000 cavalry thundering at my heels. [Laughter and 
shouts.] I was met with the roaring of cannon and the firing of musketry. 
[Cheers.] I was greeted by the burning of warehouses and the destruction of 



406 



ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN. 



property, which I now profoundly regret. [Cheers.] The welcome that was 
extended to me then was of the silent quality. [Laughter.] An illustrious 
citizen, then your chief magistrate, the Hon. Joseph E. Brown, after a four- 
hours' interview, speaking of me then, said to another gathering of illustrious 
citizens, at the head of which was Howell Cobb : " He is a clever young man, 
but, gentlemen, he takes the military view of the situation." [Laughter.] That 
was a fact then, but now I come among you and I receive a different welcome. 
I was then a victor; to-day I am a captive. [Cheers.] I must say I am a 
willing captive of your city. The fair women and the brave and excellent 
gentlemen of your town have, by their open and generous hospitality, 
imprisoned me deep down in their hearts, and I would be recreant to every 
feeling of my own if I desired release from such pleasing bondage. 



i.-<frK.>^^'5^'-t 







IiINCOLN'S GEAVE, SPHINGFIELD, IIjLINOIS. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

ADMINISTRATIONS OK JOHNSON AND GRANT. 

1865—1877. 



Andrew Johnson — Reconstruction — Quarrel Between tne President and Congress — The Fenians — Exe, 
cution of Maximilian — Admission of Nebraska — Laying of the Atlantic Cable — Purchase of Alaska 
— Impeachment and Acquittal of the President — Carpet-bag Rule in the South — Presidential Election 
of 1868 — U. S. Grant — Settlement of the Alabama Claims — Completion of the Overland Railway — 
The Chicago Fire — Settlement of the Northwestern Boundary — Presidential Election of 1872 — The 
Modoc Troubles — Civil War in Louisiana — Admission of Colorado — Panic of 1873 — Notable Deatha— 
Custer's JLissacre — The Centennial — The Presidential Election of 1876 the Most Perilous in the 
History of the Country. 

THE SEVENTEENTH PRESIDENT. 

As provided by the Constitution, Andrew Johnson, Vice-President, took 

the oatli of office as President on tlie 
day that Abraliam Lincoln died. He 
was born in Raleigh, North Caro- 
lina, December 29, 1808, and his 
parents were so poor that they did 
not send him to school at all. When 
only ten years old, ne was apprenticed 
to a tailor, and anyone who at that 
time had prophesied that he would 
some day become President of the 
United States would have been set 
down as an idiot or a lunatic. 

Among the visitors to the tailor 
shop was a kind-hearted old gentle- 
man who was in the habit of reading 
to the boys and men. Andrew be- 
came interested in what he heard, 
and, seeing how much better it 
would be for him to be able to read 
for himself, set to work and learned. 
He removed to Greenville, Tennes- 
see, in 1826, and there married a 

C407) 




ANDREW JOHNSON. 
'iiS08-1876.) One partial term, 186S-1869. 



408 ADMINISTRATIONS OF JOHNSON AND GRANT. 

noble woman, who encouraged his ambition and helped him in his studies. 
Nature had given him marked ability, and he became interested in local politics. 
The citizens had confidence in him, for he was twice elected alderman, twice 
mayor, was sent three times to the State Legislature, and in 1843 was elected to 
Congress. He remained there for ten years, when he was chosen governor of 
Tennessee, and, in 1857, became United States senator. 

Johnson had always been a Democrat, and, when the political upheaval 
came in 1860, he supported Breckinridge. While he favored slavery, he was 
a Unionist in every fibre of his being, and declared that every man who raised 
his hand against the flag should be hanged as a traitor. Tennessee was torn by 
the savage quarrel, and for a time the secessionists were ramjmnt. When John- 
son returned to his home in May, 1861, his train was stopped by a mob who 
were determined to lynch him, but he met the angered men at the door with 
a loaded revolver and cowed them. 

It was such men as Johnson that President Lincoln appreciated and deter- 
mined to keep bound to him. He appointed him military governor of Tennes- 
see in 1862, and it need hardly be said that Johnson made things lively for the 
secessionists, and did not forget to give attention to those who had persecuted him. 
His personal courage and honesty won the admiration of the North, and, as we 
have shown, led to his being placed on the ticket with President Lincoln, when 
he was renominated in 1864. 

The reader will not forget that the surrender of Johnston and the capture, 
imprisonment, and release of Jefferson Davis occurred while Johnson was 
President. 

THE PROBLEM OF RECONSTRUCTION. 

Reconstruction was the grave problem that confronted the country at the 
close of tlie war. The question was as to the status of the States lately in rebellion. 
It would not do to restore them to their full rights, with the same old govern- 
ments, for they might make better preparations and secede again. Nothing 
was clearer than that slavery was the real cause of the war, and the safety of 
the nation demanded that it should be extirpated forever. The Emancipation 
Proclamation was a war measure and simply freed the slaves, but did not pre- 
vent the re-establishment of slavery. In December, 1865, therefore, the 
Thirteenth Amendment, having been adopted by three-fourths of the States, was 
declared a part of the Constitution. By it slavery was forever abolished, and 
one of the gravest of all perils was removed. 

President Johnson was a man of strong passions and prejudices. He had 
been a "poor white" in the South, whose condition in some respect was worse 
than that of slaves. He held a bitter personal hatred of the aristocratic 
Southerners, who had brought on the war. His disposition at first was to hang 



i 



QUARREL BETWEEN CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT. 409 

the leaders, but after awhile he swung almost as far in the opposite direction. 
At the same time, he was not particularly concerned for the welfare of the 
freed slaves, who were called " freedmen." 

THE president's POLICY. 

President Johnson termed his plan " my policy," and briefly it was : To 
appoint provisional or temporary governors for each of the States lately in 
rebellion. These governors called conventions of delegates, who were elected by 
the former white voters of the respective States. When the conventions met 
they declared all the ordinances of secession void, pledged themselves never to 
pay any debt of the Southern Confederacy, and ratified the Thirteenth Amend- 
ment, as proposed by Congress early in 1865, and which abolished slavery 
Before the close of the year named, each of the excluded States had been reor- 
ganized in accordance with this plan. Virginia, Tennessee, and Arkansas took 
the step while Lincoln was President. 

The vexatious question was as to the treatment of the freedmen. The South 
had no faith that they would work, except when compelled to do so by slave- 
overseers. The new governments passed laws, therefore, to compel them to 
work, under the penalty of being declared vagrants and sent to jail, where they 
would be forced to hard labor. This method was denounced in the North as a 
re-establishment of slavery under a new name. The Republican majority in 
December, 1865, refused for a time to admit any members from the States that 
had been in rebellion. 

QUARREL BETWEEN CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT. 

Thus a quarrel arose between the President and Congress. The latter pro- 
posed to keep the States on probation for a time, before giving them their full 
rights, while the President strenuously insisted that they should be admitted at 
once on the same status as those that had not been engaged in secession. To 
keep out the eighty-five members who had been refused admission, Congress 
imposed a test oath, which excluded all who had been connected in any way 
with the Confederate government. The Republicans had a two-thirds vote in 
Congress which enabled them to pass any bill they chose over the President's 
veto. While they had not formulated any clear policy, they were resolved to 
protect the freedmen in all their rights. The reorganization of Tennessee being 
satisfactory, her members were received by Congress in 1866. 

The congressional elections of this year intrenched the Republicans in Con- 
gress, and they were sure of the power for the next two years to carry through 
any policy upon which they might agree. By that time, too, they had fixed 
upon their plan of reconstruction and prepared to enforce it. 



410 ADMINISTRATIONS OF JOHNSON AND GRANT. 

This policy was to allow the freedmen to vote and to deprive the Confed- 
erate leaders of the right to do so. To accomplish this, the plan was to place all 
the seceding States under military governors, who should call new conventions 
to form State governments. The negroes and not the leading Confederates had 
the power to vote for these delegates. Provided the new governments allowed 
the freedmen the right of suffrage, and ratified the Fourteenth Amendment 
(which exckided the leading Confederates from office), then the Southern senators 
and representatives would be admitted to Congress. 

THE CIVIL RIGHTS BILL. 

The " civil rights " bill, wliich placed the blacks and whites on the same 
footing, was vetoed by the President, March 27th. He pointed out the danger 
of giving suffrage to 4,000,000 ignorant people, lately slaves, and said unscrup- 
ulous men in the North would hasten South and take advantage of their igno- 
ranee. This was jirecisely what took place. The South was overrun by a set of 
scoundrels known as " carpet-baggers " (because they were supposed to carry 
all their worldly possessions when they reached the South in a carpet bag ; in 
many instances a score of trunks would not have sufficed to hold what they took 
back), whose rule was worse than a pestilence, and forms one of the most shame- 
ful episodes in our history. According to the old system, the negroes were 
counted in making up the congressional representation of the South, and the 
Republicans insisted that they were, therefore, entitled to vote. The bill was 
pass'?d April 9th, over the President's veto. 

The story of the bitter quarrel between the President and Congress is 
an unjileasant one. Woi'ds were uttered by him and by leading members of 
Congress which it would be well to forget. The President became angrier as the 
wrangle progressed, for, in the face of the hostile majority, he was j^owerless. 
The fight continued through the years 1867 and 186S. In June of the latter 
year, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina, and South Caro- 
lina were re-admitted to Congress. The States that had seceded were divided 
into five military districts, and President Johnson, much against his will, was 
obliged to appoint the governors. As a result of all this, the negroes were 
largely in the majority in the South, and the Republican vote in Congress was 
greatly increased. But in the North, the fall elections went mostly Democratic, 
though not enough so to overcome the opposing majority in Congress. 

During these excitins: times there were several occurrences of a different 
nature which require notice. The Fenians are men of Ii-ish birth who favor the 
indej'endence of their country from Great Britain. One of their favorite methods 
is by the invasion of Canada. In 1866, about 1,500 of them entered Canada 
from Buffalo, and some skirmishing occurred, but the movement was so clearly 



ADMISSION OF NEBRASKA. 



411 



a violation of law that the President sent a military force to the frontier and 
promptly stopped it. 

EXECUTION OF MAXIMILIAN. 

France had taken advantage of our Civil War to make an attempt to estab- 
lish a monarchy in Mexico. French troops were landed, an empire proclaimed, 
and Maximilian, an Austrian archduke, declared emj^eror. He went to Mexico in 
1864, where he was compelled to fight the Mexicans who had risen against his 
rule. With the help of the strong military force which Louis Napoleon placed 
at his disposal, he was able to maintain himself for a time. ■ With the conclusion 
of the war, our government intimated to Emperor Napoleon that it would be 
politic for 
him to with- 
draw from 
Mexico, al- 
though Wf 
were quite 
willing to al- 
low Maximil- 
ian to remain 
emperor if it 
was the wish 
of the Mexi- 
cans. Napol- 
eon acted on 
the warning, 
but the mis- 
guided victim 
chose to stay, 
and was cajv 

tured by the Mexicans in 1867 and shot. That was the end of the attempt to 
establish an empire in Mexico, which has long been a prosperous and well- 
governed republic. 

ADMISSION OF NEBRASKA. 

Nebraska was admitted to the iJnion in 1867. It was a part of the Louis- 
iana purchase and was made a Territory in 1854, by the Kansas-Nebraska act. 
Being located much further north than Kansas, it escaped the strife and civil 
war which desolated that Territory. It has proven to be a rich agricultural 
region, though it suffers at times from grasshoppers, drought, and storms. 

The attempts to lay an Atlantic telegraph cable resulted in failures until 
1866, when a cable was laid from Ireland to Newfoundland. Since then other 




LOG-CABIN CHUHCH AT JDNBAU, ALASKA. 



412 ADMINISTRATIONS OF JOHNSON AND GRANT. 

cables have been successfully stretched beneath the ocean until it may be said 
the world is girdled by them. 

PUECHASE OF ALASKA. 

In 1867 our country purchased from Russia the large tract in the northwest 
known as Russian America. The sum paid was $7,200,000, a price which 
many deemed so exorbitant that it was considered a mere pretext of Secretary 
Seward, who strongly urged the measure, in order to give Russia a bonus for 
her valuable friendship during the Civil War. Inclusive of the islands, the area 
of Alaska is 577,390 square miles. The country was looked upon as a cold, dis- 
mal land of fogs and storms, without any appreciable value, but its seal fisheries 
and timber have been so productive of late years that it has repaid its original 
-cost tenfold and more. 

WIDENING OF THE BREACH BETWEEN CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT. 

One of the acts jjassed by Congress in March, 1867, forbade the President 
to dismiss any members of his cabinet without the consent of the Senate. The 
President insisted that the Constitution gave him the right to do this. Secretary 
of War Stanton, who had resigned by his request, was succeeded by General 
Grant, who gave way to Stanton, when the latter was replaced by the Senate, 
in January, 1868. On the 21st of February the President dismissed liiui and 
appointed Adjutant-General Thomas secretary ad iiiterim. Stanton refused to 
yield, and remained at his office night and day, with a company of friends and 
a military guard. Several demands for the office were made by General 
Thomas, but all were refused. It was believed the President would send troops 
to enforce his order, but he did not proceed to that extremity. 

IMPEACHMENT AND ACQUITTAL OF THE PRESIDENT. 

On the 24th of February the House of Representatives passed a resolution 
to impeach the President. This was simply to accuse or chai-ge him with the 
commission of high crimes and misdemeanors. In such cases the trial must be 
conducted by the Senate. A committee was appointed to prepare the articles of 
impeachment, which, in the main, accused the executive of violating the civil 
tenure act in his removal of Secretary Stanton, though other charges were 
added. 

When the President is impeached, the Constitution provides that his trial 
shall take place before the Senate, sitting as a court. The trial occupied thirty- 
two days, lasting until May 26th, with Chief Justice Chase presiding, on which 
day a vote was taken on the eleventh article of impeachment. Thirty-five 
senators voted for conviction and nii'ptppii for acquittal. One more vote — 



SAD CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY. 



413 



making the necessary two-thirds — would have convicted. Ten days later the 
same vote was given on the other charges, whereupon a verdict of acquittal was 
ordered. 

SAD CONDITION' OF THE COUNTRT. 

The country was in a lamentable condition. Congress censured the Presi- 
dent, who expressed his contempt for that body. General Sheridan, whom the 
President had removed from the governorship of Louisiana, was complimented 



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A BOUTHEBIir IiEGISLATURE UNDER CARPET-BAG RULE. 

The curjiet-baggers debauched the negroes, sending some of the most ignorant of them to the Legislature, where their persona) 
conduct was a disgrace and they voted away vast sums of money for adventurers who bribed them with a pittance. 

for his administration, and Congress declared that there was no valid govern- 
ment in the South, the jurisdiction of which was transferred to General Grant, 
the head of the army. 

By this time the carpet-baggers had swarmed into the sorely harried region 
like so many locusts. They secured the support of the ignorant blacks, by 
falsehood and misrepresentations, controlled the State Legislatures, and had 
themselves elected to Congress. Enormous debts were piled up, and negroes, 
who could not write their names, exultingly made laws for their former masters- 



414 ADMINISTRATIONS OF JOHNSON AND GRANT. 

who remained in sullen silence at their homes and wondered what affliction was 
coming next. The colored legislators adjourned pell-mell to attend the circus ; 
hundreds of thousands of dollars were stolen, and extravagance, corruption, 
and debauchery ran riot. As a public man remarked, one general conflagration, 
sweeping from the Potomac to the Gulf of Mexico, could not have wrought more 
devastation in the South than the few years of carpet-bag governments. 

Yet all such evils are sure to riglil themselves,- sooner or later. The 
means are aj^t to be violent and revolutionary, and sometimes breed crime of 
itself It was not in the nature of things that the whites should remain passive 
and meek under this unspeakable misrule. They united for self-protection. 
One of the bands thus formed was the Ku-Klux, which in time committed so 
many crimes in terrorizing the negroes that they were suppressed by the stern 
arm of the military ; a revolt of the best people took place, and soon after 1870 
the blight of carpet-bag government disa^^peared from the South. 

TKUE RECONCILIATIOISr. 

Desj^ite the turbulence and angry feeling, the work of reconciliation went 
on of itself. Northern capital entered the j^romising fields of the South ; former 
Union and Confederate leaders, as well as privates, respected one another, as 
brave men always do, and became warm friends. While many of the former 
went South, hundreds of the latter made 'heir homes in the North, where they 
were welcomed and assisted in the struggle to "get upon their feet." This 
fraternal mingling of former soldiers and the friendly exchange of visits 
between Union and Confederate posts brought about true reconciliation, despite 
the wrangles of politicians. 

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1868. 

Before, however, this was fully accomplished, the presidential election of 
1868 took place. The most popular hero in this country, as in others, is the 
military one, and the great value of General Grant's services in the war for the 
Union made it clear, long before the assembling of the nominating convention, 
that he would be the candidate of the Republican party. He was unanimously 
named, Avith Schuyler Colfax, of Indiana, the Speaker of the House of Repre- 
sentatives, as the nominee for Vice-President. The Democrats placed in 
nomination Horatio Seymour, of New York, and General Francis P. Blair, of 
Missouri. The result in November was as follows: Republican ticket, 214 
electoral votes; Democratic, 80. The election was a striking proof of the 
pojiularity of the great soldier. 

Andrew Johnson was hopeful of a nomination from the Democrats, but 
his name was scarcely mentioned. He lived in retirement for a number of 



I 



THE EIGHTEENTH PRESIDENT. 



415 



years, but was elected United States senator in 1875, and he died at his home 
July olst of that year. 




THE EIGHTEENTH PRESIDENT. 

Ulysses S. Grant had already 
become so identified with the history 
of our country that little remains to 
be added to that which has been re- 
corded. He was born at Point 
Pleasant, Ohio, April 27, 1822. Ap- 
pointed to West Point, he gave no 
evidence of special brilliancy, and 
was grachiated in 1843 with only a 
fair standing. He did good service 
in the war with Mexico and was bre- 
vetted captain, but resigned his com- 
mission in 1854 and went into busi- 
ness, where he attained only moderate 
success. He was among the first to 
volunteer when the Civil War broke 
out. The opportunity thus presented 
for the full display of his military 
genius ra25idly brought him to the 
front, the culmination of his career being reached when he compelled the sur- 
render of General Lee at Appomattox Court- 
House in April, 18G5, tliereby bringing the long 
and terrible war to a triumphant conclusion. He 
was a man of simple tastes, modest, but with an 
unerring knowledge of his own abilities, thor- 
oughly patriotic, lionest, chivalrous, devoted to 
his friends, and so trustful of them that he re- 
mained their supporters sometimes after receivingi 
proof of their unworthiness. The mistakes of his 
administration were due mainly to this trait of 
his character, which it is hard to condemn with- 
out reservation. 

The country being fairly launched once more 
on its career of progress and pros^ierity, the gov- 
ernment gained the op]iortunity to give attention to matters which it was com- 
pelled to pass by while the war was in progress. The first most important step 



ULYSSES SiMPSOW GKANT. 

(1822-188.1.) Two terms, 186i>-1877. 




MRS. JULIA DENT GRANT. 



416 ADMINISTRATIONS OF JOHNSON AND GRANT. 

was to call England to account for her help in fitting out Confederate privateers, 
when we were in extremity. It required considerable tact and delicacy to get 
the " Alabama Claims," as they were termed, in proper form before the British 
authorities, for they felt sensitive, but it was finally accomplished. The arbitra- 
tion tribunal which sat at Geneva, Switzerland, in June, 1872, decreed that 
England should pay the United States the sum of $15,500,000 because of the 
damage inflicted by Confederate cruisers upon Northern commerce. The amount 
was paid, and friendly relations between the two countries were fully restored. 

Our rapid growth had long since made the building of a railroad from the 
East to the Pacific a necessity that continually grew more urgent. Construction 
was begun as early as 1863, but the Civil War caused the work to lag, and at 
the end of two years only one hundred miles had been graded and forty laid. 
The progress then became more vigorous. 

The road consisted of two divisions. The first was from Omaha, Nebraska, 
to Ogden, Utah, a distance of 1,032 miles, while the western division, known as 
the Central Pacific, covered the distance of 885 miles between Ogden and San 
Francisco. Steadily approaching each other, these long lines of railway met on 
the 10th of May, 1869, when the last spike, made of solid gold, was driven, 
and the two locomotives, standing with their pilots almost touching, joined in a 
joyous screech of their whistles. The important event was celebrated with 
much ceremony, for it was worthy of being commemorated. 

RECONSTRUCTION COMPLETED. 

The vexatious work of reconstruction was completed during the early 
months of 1870. Virginia had held out against the terms prescribed by 
Congress, but her senators and representatives were admitted to their seats in 
the latter part of January; those of Mississippi in the following month, and 
those of Texas in March, at which time the secretary of State issued a procla- 
mation declaring the adoption of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, 
which guarantees negro suffrage. For the first time in almost twenty years, all 
the States were fully represented in Congress. 

THE CHICAGO FIRE. 

On the 8th of October, 1871, Chicago was visited by the greatest conflagra- 
tion of modern times, with the single exception of that of Moscow. Like many 
events, fraught with momentous consequences, it had a trifling cause. A cow 
kicked over a lamp in a stable on De Koven Street, which set fire to the straw. 
A gale swiftly carried the flames into some adjoining lumber yards and frame 
houses. All the conditions were favorable for a tremendous conflagration. The 
fire swept over the south branch of the Chicago River, and raged furiously in 



SETTLEMENT OF THE NORTHWESTERN BOUNDARY. 



417 



the business portion of the city. The main channel of the river was leaped as 
if it were a narrow alley, and there were anxious hours when thousands believed 
the whole city was doomed. As it was, the fire-swept district covered four or 
five miles, and fully 20,000 buildings were burned. It is believed that 250 lives 
were lost, about 100,000 peoj^le made homeless, and $192,000,000 worth of 
property destroyed. 

Chicago's affliction stirred the sympathy of the whole country. Contribu- 
tions were sent thither from every State, and everything was done to aid the 




THE BURNING OF CHICAGO IN 1871. 

sufferers who had lost their all. With true American pluck, the afflicted people 
bent to the work before them. Night and day thousands toiled, and within the 
space of a year a newer and more magnificent city rose like a Phoenix from its 
ashes. Chicago to-day is one of the grandest and most enterprising cities in the 
world. 

SETTLEMENT OF THE NORTHWESTERN BOUNDARY. 

We had made a treaty with England in 1846 which located the ane of our 
northwestern boundary along the 49th parallel westward to the middle of "the 
87 



418 



AD3IINISTRATI0NS OF JOHNSON AND GRANT. 



cliannel" separating the continent from Vancouver's Island, and then southward 
through the middle of the channel and of Fuca's Strait to the Pacific Ocean. 
It was found, however, there were several channels, and it was impossible to 
decide which was meant in the treaty. The claim of England included the 
island of San Juan, she insisting that the designated channel ran to the south 
of that island. Naturally, we took the opposite view and were equally insistent 
that the channel ran to the north, and that San Juan, therefore, belonged to us. 
The two nations displayed their good sense by referring the dispute to arbitra- 
tion and selected the Emperor of 
Germany as the arbitrator. He 
decided in 1872 in our favor. 



PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1872. 

It was a curious presidential 
election that took jolace in 1872. 
The South was bitterly opposed to 
the Republican j^lan of recon- 
struction and a good many in the 
North sympathized with them. 
One of the strongest opponents of 
Grant's renomination was the Ncio 
York Tribune, of which Horace 
Greeley was editor. The Repub- 
licans who agreed with him were 
called "Liberal Republicans," 
while the Straight-out Democrats 
retained their organization. Nat- 
.irally, the regular Republicans 
renominated Grant, but Henry 
"-^ Wilson, of Massachusetts, took the 
place of Schuyler Colfax as the 
Horace Greeley, who had spent his life in 




SECTION OP CHICAGO STOCK- i, 
LARGEST IN THE WOEi.D. 



nominee for the Vice-Presidency, 
vigorously fighting the principles of the Democratic jiarty, was now endorsed by 
that organization after his nomination by the Liberal Republicans, with B. Gratz 
Brown, of Missouri, as his running jiartner. 

The election was a perfect jumble. Eight candidates were voted for 
as President and eleven for Vice-President. Grant received 286 electoral 
votes and carried thirty-one States. Greeley was so crushed by his defeat that 
he lost his reason and died within a month after election. His electors scat- 
tered their votes, so that Thomas A. Hendricks, the regular Democratic caudi« 



THE MODOC TROUBLES. 419 

date, received 42 ; B. Gratz Brown, 16 ; Charles J. Jenkins, 2 ; and David 
Davis, 1. 

THE INDIAN QUESTION. 

The second term of Grant was more troublous than the first. The difficulties 
with the Indians, dating from the first settlement in the country, were still with 
us. At the suggestion of the President, a grand council of delegates of the 
civilized tribes met in December, 1870, in the Choctaw division of the Indian 
Territory. The subject brought before them was the organization of a repub- 
lican form of government, to be under the general rule of the United States. 
A second convention was held in the following July and a provisional govern- 
ment organized. A proposal was adopted that the United States should set 
aside large tracts of land for the exclusive occupancy and use of the Indians. 
These areas were to be known as " reservations," and so long as the Indians 
remained upon them they were to be protected from molestation. 

This scheme seemed to promise a settlement of the vexed question, but it 
failed to accomplish what was expected. In the first place, most of the Indians 
were unfriendly to it. No matter how large a part of country you may give to 
a red man as his own, he will not be satisfied Avithout permission to roam and 
hunt over all of it. 

A more potent cause of trouble was the origin of all the Indian troubles, 
from the colonial times to the present : the dishonesty and rascality of the white 
men brought officially in contact with the red men. Not only did these mis- 
creants pursue their evil ways among the Indians themselves, but there was an 
" Indian ring " in Washington, whose members spent vast sums of money to secure 
the legislation that enabled them to cheat the savages out of millions of dollars. 
This wholesale plundering of the diffiirent tribes caused Indian wars and 
massacres, while the evil men at the seat of the government grew wealthy and 
lived in luxury. 

THE MODOC TROUBLES. 

Trouble at once resulted from removing the Indians to reservations that 
were inferior in every respect to their former homes. The Modocs, who had only 
a few hundred warriors, were compelled by our government to abandon their 
fertile lands south of Oregon and o;o to a section which was little better than a 
desert. They rebelled, and, under the leadership of Captain Jack and Scar- 
faced Charley, a number took refuge among some lava beds on the upper edge 
of California. On the 11th of April, 1873, a conference was held between the 
Indian leaders and six members of the peace commission. While it was in pro- 
gress, the savages suddenly attacked the white men. General Edward S. Canby 
and Dr. Thomas were instantly killed, and General Meaehera, another member, 
was badly wounded, but escaped with his life. 



420 ADMINISTRATIONS OF JOHNSON AND GRANT. 

The war against the Modocs was pushed. After much difficulty and 
fighting, they were driven to the wall and compelled to surrender. Captain 
Jack and two of his brother chiefs were hanged in the following October. 
The remaining members were removed to a reservation in Dakota, where they 
have given no further trouble. 

CIVIL WAE IN LOUISIANA. 

In the early part of this year, civil war broke out in Louisiana because of 
the quarrels over reconstruction measures. The difficulty first ai^j^eared two 
years earlier, when opposing factions made attempts to capture the Legislature by 
unseating members belonging to the opposing party. Matters became so grave 
that in the following January Federal troops had to be used to preserve the peace. 
In December, 1872, another bitter quarrel arose over the election of the gov- 
ernor and members of the Legislature. The returning board divided, one part 
declaring William P. Kellogg elected, while the other gave the election to John 
McEnery, the candidate of the white man's party. Most of the negro vote had 
been cast for Kellogg. 

As a consequence, two rival State governments were organized. McEnery 
was enjoined by the United States district court from acting, because, as was 
asserted, the returning board which declared him elected had done so in defiance 
of its order. 

In the face of this prohibition, McEnei'y was inaugurated. The question 
was referred to the Federal government, which declared in favor of Kellogg. 
Thereupon the INIcEnery government disbanded, but in the latter part of 1874 
McEnery again laid claim to election. D. P. Penn,his lieutenant-governor, and 
his armed followers took possession of the State House. A fight followed in 
which Kellogg was driven from the building, twenty-six persons killed and a 
large number wounded. Kellogg appealed to Washington for help. McEnery, 
who was absent during these violent proceedings, now returned and took the 
place of Penn. President Grant ordered his supporters to disperse and General 
Emory forced McEnery to surrender. The peace was broken in January, 1875, 
over the election of members to the Legislature, and the Federal troops were 
again called to restore order. A congressional committee was sent South to 
investigate, and finally the quarrel was ended and Kellogg was recognized as 
the legal governor. 

ADMISSION OF COLORADO. 

Colorado became the thirty-eighth State in August, 1876. The name is 
S2)anish, and refers to that j^ai't of tlie Rocky ]\Ioun tains noted for its many 
colored peaks. Colorado has more than thirty peaks within its borders whose 
height is quite or nearly three miles. The wild, mountainous region was 



I 



NOTABLE DEATHS. 421 

explored in 1858 at two j)oints, one near Pike's Peak and the other in the 
southwestern portion. Both exploring parties discovered gold, which, while 
abundant, is hard to extract. The Territory was organized in 1861, and the 
principal discoveries of the enormous deposits of silver have been made since 
1870. The date of Colorado's admission has caused it often to be referred to as 
the "Centennial State." 

THE PANIC OF 1873. 

We had learned the meaning of hard times in 1837 and again in 1857. 
Once more, in 1873, the blight fell upon the country. There were various 
causes, all of which, in one sense, were the war. Prices had become inflated, 
money was plentiful, and cities, towns, and people had become extravagant. A 
mania seemed to seize municipal corporations for indulging in "improvements," 
which brought ruinous debts upon the municipalities. Enormous sums of money 
were invested in the building of new railroad lines where the country was not 
developed sufficiently to repay the expenditures. The quantity of goods brought 
into this country was much in excess of that exported, a fact which turned the 
balance of trade, as it was termed, against us. This required the sending 
abroad of a large amount of money. 

As illustrative of the extravagance in railroad building, it may be said that, 
in the single year 1871, 8,000 miles were jJut in operation. Instead of using 
ready money with which to build these lines, bonds were issued by the railroad 
companies, which expected to jiay the debts out of the future earnings of the 
roads. In the course of five years $1,750,000,000 were invested in railroad 
projects. The same speculative spirit pervaded mining and manufacturing 
companies, which also borrowed money by issuing bonds. A great amount 
of these were sold abroad, after which the home market was industriously 
worked through the newspapers, which overflowed with glowing promises. 
Thousands of poor widows, orjihans, and the trustees of estates invested all 
their scanty savings in these enterprises. 

Then the failures began. The banking firm of Jay Cooke & Company, 
Philadelphia, one of the greatest in the United States, suspended, and the whole 
country was alarmed. Next came the panic, which reached its height in 
a few months. This was followed by dull times, when factories closed, and 
multitudes were thrown out of employment. Several years passed before the 
country fully recovered from the panic of 1873. 

NOTABLE DEATHS. 

Many noted men died during those times. The bluff, aggressive, and 
patriotic Edwin M. Stanton, Lincoln's war secretary, passed away in December, 
1869, shortly after his appointment to the bench of the supreme court by Presi- 



422 



AB3IINISTRATI0NS OF JOHNSON AND GRANT. 



dent Grant. General R. E. Lee, who liacl become president of the Washington 
and Lee University, died at his home in Lexington, Virginia, in 1870. Among 
others of prominence who died in the same year vv'ere General George H, 
Thomas and Admiral Farragut. In 1872, William H. Seward, Horace Gi'eeley, 
Professor Morse, and Genei-al George H. Meade breathed their last, and in 
the year following Chief Justice Chase and Chai'les Snmner died, Millard 
Fillmore and Andrew Johnson, as has been stated, died respectively in 1874 
and 1875. 

The Democrats now gained a majority in the House of Representatives for 




MONUMENT TO GENERAL LEE AT KICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 



the first time since 1860. Among the members elected from the Soutli weie 
several distinguished military leaders of tlie Southern Confederacy, besides 
Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, who had been its vice-president. 

It was about this time that gold was discovered among the Black Hills, 
which by treaty belonged to the Sioux Indians, since the section was within 
their reservation. White men were warned to keep away, and steps were taken 
by the military authorities to prevent them entering upon the forbidden ground. 
But no risk or danger is sufficient to quench men's thirst for gold, and thou- 



CUSTER'S MASSACRE. 



423 



Bands of the most desperate characters hurried to the BlacK Hills and began 
digging for the yellow deposit. 



CUSTER S MASSACRE. 

The Sioux are fierce and warlike. They have given our government a 
great deal of trouble, and, finding their reservation invaded by white men, they 
retaliated by leaving it, burning houses, stealing horses, and cattle, and killing 
settlers in Wyoming and Montana. 
Their outrages became so serious 
that the government sent a strong 
military force thither under Generals 
Terry and Crook, which drove a for- 
midable body of warriors under the 
well-known Sitting Bull and others 
toward the Big Horn Mountains and 
River. 

Generals Reno and Custer rode 
forward with the Seventh Cavalry to 
reconnoitre, and discovered the In- 
dians encamped in a village nearly 
three miles long on the left bank of 
the Little Big Horn River. Custer, 
who was an impetuous, headlong 
officer, instantly charged upon the 
Indians without waiting for rein- 
forcements. 

This woful blunder was made 
June 25, 1876. All that is known of 
it has been obtained from the Indians 
themselves. They agree that Custer 
and his men dashed directly among 
the thousands of warriors, and that 
they fought with desperate heroism, but Custer and every one of his men were 
killed. The number was 261. General Reno held his position at the lower end 
of the encampment on the bluffs of the Little Big Horn until reinforcements 
arrived. Soldiers were sent to the neighborhood, and there was more sharp 
fighting. It was a long time and there was much negotiation necessary before 
the Sioux could be persuaded to return to their reservation in Dakota. 

On the 4th of July, 1876, the United States was one hundred years old. 
Preparations had been on foot for several years to give it a fitting celebratioa 




GEJSTEBAIi GEOBGH CEOOK. 



424 ADMINISTRATIONS OF JOHNSON AND GRANT. 

A bill was passed by Congress as early as March, 1871, providing that an exhi- 
bition of foreign and American arts, products, and manufactures should be held 
under the auspices of the government of the United States. A centennial com- 
mission was appointed, consisting of General Joseph R. Hawley, of Connecticut ; 
Professor John L. Campbell, of Indiana ; Alfred T. Goshorn, of Ohio ; and John 
L. Shoemaker, of Pennsylvania. Naturally Philadelphia, where the Declara- 
tion of Independence was written and signed, was selected as the most fitting 
place to hold the celebration. Fairmount Park, one of the largest and finest in 
the world, was set apart for the buildings. 

The invitations sent to other nations were courteously accepted, the follow- 
ing being those that took part : The Argentine Confederation, Austria, Belgium, 
Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, France (including 
Algeria), German Empii-e, Great Britain and her colonies, Greece, Guatemala, 
Hawaii, Haiti, Honduras, Italy, Japan, Liberia, Mexico, Netherlands, Nicaragua, 
Norway, Orange Free State, Persia, Peru, Portugal, Russia, Siam, Spain, Sweden, 
Switzerland, Tunis, Turkey, United States of Colombia, and Venezuela. 

To furnish room for the display of the myriads of articles, five principal 
buildings were erected, viz.: the Main Building, 1,876 feet long and 464 feet 
wide ; the Art Gallery or Memorial Hall, IMachinery Hall, Agricultural Hall, 
and Horticultural Hall. The exhibition was formally opened by President 
Grant, May 1st, and closed by him six months later. Tlie daily attendance 
began with about 5,000, but rose to 275,000 toward the close. The total number 
of visitors was some 10,000,000, and the total receipts, as officially given out, 
were $3,761,598. The exhibition was a splendid success in every sense. 

THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1876. 

Few people to-day understand the danger through which the country passed 
in the autumn and winter of 1876. In June, the two great political parties put 
their presidential tickets in the field. That of the Republicans was Rutherford 
B. Hayes, of Ohio, and AVilliam A. Wheeler, of New York ; of the Democrats, 
Samuel J. Tilden, of New York, and Tliomas A. Hendricks, of Indiana. The 
Independent Greenback party also nominated a ticket, at the head of which was 
the venerable philanthropist, Peter Cooper, of New York, with Samuel F. Cary, 
of Ohio, the candidate for the vice-presidency. 

There was little difference between the platforms of the two leading parties. 
The Democrats declared for reform through all the methods of the administra- 
tion. The Republicans were equally loud in their calls for the reform of every 
political abuse, and for the punishment of any and all who made wrongful use 
of political offices. They also insisted that the rights of the colored men should 



THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1876. 



425 



be safeguarded, and denounced the doctrine of State sovereignty, of whicli there 
was little to be feared, since it had been effectually killed by the war. 

The Greenbackers made considerable stir. They also used the shibboleth 
of reform, but put the currency question before all others. Although the govern- 
ment was committed to the redemf)tion of the national legal-tendei's and bonds 
in gold, the Greenbackers insisted that this was impossible, and was also unjust 
to the debtor class. They claimed, further, that it was the duty of the govern- 
ment to provide a national paper currency, based not on specie, but on bonds 
bearing a low rate of interest. The Republicans and Democrats maintained that 
the government could not abrogate its promises of redeeming the currency and 

bonds in gold. ^^^-.^^^ 

The Green- ^ immsuau^^^^ *._ ^w& _^ 

back party polled 
81,740 votes, the 
Prohibition 9,522, 
and the American 
2,636, none gain- 
ing an electoral 
vote. For several 
days after the No- 
vember election, it 
was generally be- 
lieved that the 
Democrats had 
been successful, 
though a few Re- 
publican papers, notably the New York Times, persistently claimed that the 
Republican ticket had been successful. 

There was a dispute in four States. In Louisiana, the returning board 
threw out the returns from several parishes on the ground of intimidation and 
fraud, thereby j^lacing 4,000 majority to the credit of the Republicans. The 
Democrats insisted that the rejected votes should be counted, and, had it been 
done, Tilden would have been elected. 

In South Carolina, two bodies claimed to be the legal Legislature ;ind both 
canvassed the returns, one giving a plurality of 800 to the Repul)lican ticket 
and the other a smaller majority to the Democratic. Precisely the same wrangle 
occurred in Florida, where each side claimed a majority of about a hundred. 
Matters were still more complicated in Oregon, where a Republican elector was 
declared ineligible, because he held the office of postmaster at the time he was 




MEMORIAL HALL OP 1876. 



426 



ADMINISTRATIONS OF JOHNSON AND GRANT. 



chosen elector. The governor proposed to withhold the certificate from him 
and give it to a Democrat. Had everything claimed by the Republicans been 
conceded, they would have had 185 and the Democrats 184. It was necessary, 
therefore, for the Republicans to maintain every jjoint in order to secure their 
President, for it was beyond dispute that Tilden had received 184 electoral votes. 
On the popular vote, he had 4,284,885 to 4,033,950 for Hayes. Each party 
charged the other with fraud, and thousands of Democrats were so incensed at 
what they believed was a plot to cheat them out of the presidency that they 
were ready to go to war. Had they done so, it would have been the most ter- 
rible peril that ever came upon the 




Republic, for the war would 
have been one section 
other, but of neighborhood 



against 



not 
the 



agamst 
neighborhood throughout the land. 

As if nothing in the way of dis- 
cord should be lacking, the Senate 
was Republican and the House 
Democratic. The election being dis- 
puted, it fell to them to decide the 
question — something they would 
never do, since they were dead- 
locked. This was so apparent that 
thoughtful men saw that some new 
and extraordinary means must be 
found to save the country frcm civil 
war. 

Congress, after long and earnest 
discussion, passed a bill creating an 
Electoral Commission, to which it 
was agreed to submit the disjiute. 
This commission was to consist of 
f'fteen members, five to be appointed by the House, five by the Senate, and the 
remaining five to consist of judges of the Supreme Court. 

The Senate being Republican, its presiding officer, the Vice-President, 
named three Republicans and two Democrats ; the House naturally appointed 
three Democrats and two Republicans ; while of the Supreme Court, three were 
Republicans and two Democrats. This, it will be noted, gave to the commission 
eight Republicans and seven Democrats. The body by a strict party vote de- 
cided every dispute in favor of the Republicans, and on the 2d of March, 1877, 
two days before inauguration, Rutherford B. Hayes was decided President-elect 
of the United States. 



SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 

(1814-1SS6) 



CHAPTER XX. 

ADIvIINISTRATlONS OK HAYES, OARKIELD, AND 

ARTHUR, 1877-1885. 

R. B. Haj'es — The Teleplione — Railway Strikes — Elevated Railroads — War with the Nez Perce Indiana 
— Remonetization of Silver — Resumption of Specie Payments — A Strange Fishery Award — The 
Yellow Fever Scourge — Presidential Election of 1 878 — James A. Garfield — Civil Service Reform — 
Assassination of President Garfield — Chester A. Arthur — The Star Route Frauds — The Brooklyn 
Bridge — The Chinese Question — The Mormons — Alaska Exploration — The Yorktown Centennial — 
Attempts to Reach the North Pole by Americans — History of the Greely Expedition. 



THE NINETEENTH PRESIDENT. 

Rutherford Birchard Hayes ^Yas Imni in Delaware County, Oliio, Octo- 
ber 4, 1822, and was graduated from 
Keuyon College at the age of twenty 
years. In 1845 he completed his 
legal studies at Harvard University, 
and practiced law, first at Marietta, 
in his native State, then at Fre- 
mont, and finally in Cincinnati. He 
entered the military service, at the 
beginning of the war, as major, and 
rose to the rank of brevet major- 
general. His career as a soldier 
was creditable. While still in the 
service, in 1864, he was elected to 
Congress, and was governor of Ohin 
in 1867, 1869, and again in 187-"). 
His poi^ularity as chief magistrate 
of one of the leading States led to 
his nomination to the presidency, 
to which, however, it must be con- 
ceded, he had not a clear title. 
He died at Fremont, Ohio, January 
17, 1893. 

President Hayes proved his desire to strengthen the fraternal feeling 

^427) 




KUTHEBFOED BIEUiiAKiJ UAYiLo 

(lS22-189:i.) One term, 1877-1681, 



428 HAYES, GARFIELD, AND ARTHUR. 

between the North and South by appointing as a member of his cabinet David 
McKey, his postmaster-general. Mi'. McKey was from Tennessee, and had served 
the Confederacy during the Civil War. Hayes' administration on the whole 
was uneventful, though marked by a number of incidents which deserve men- 
tion. It was in 1877 that the first telephone for business j^urposes was put into 
use. It connected the residence of Charles Williams, in Somerville, Massa- 
chussetts, with his business office in Boston, three miles distant. Alexander 
Bell, of the latter city, was the inventor of the instrument, which is now ni 
general use throughout the country, and serves to connect points more than a 
thousand miles apart. 

RAILWAY STRIKES. 

In the summer of 1877 occurred one of the most violent outbreaks among 
labor men that has ever been known in this country. There was unrest in the 
mining districts over the question of wages, and the dissatisfaction spread to the 
principal manufacturing points. When the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad made 
a reduction of 10 per cent, in the pay of its employees it was followed, July 
14th, by a partial strike on their line. The men had the sympathy of workmen 
throughout the country, and tlie strike spread to the Pennsylvania, Erie, New 
York Central, and their western connections, including the Missouri and Pacific, 
and a number of less important lines west of the Mississippi. 

The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers is one of the most intelligent 
and conservative labor organizations in the country. It has won the respect of 
corporations as well as of the comnmnity-at-large by its fairness and its refusal 
to engage in strikes, except as a last resort against grievances. Its members are 
located in all parts of the country, and include a good many thousands. In the 
strike named the Brotherhood took the lead, and the firemen, brakemen, and 
other railroad employees joined them. The result was the stoppage of the wheels 
of commerce and the ruin of vast amounts of perishable freight, to say nothing 
of the expensive delays of all kinds. The railroad comjmnies called upon the 
various State authorities for protection in operating their lines, but, as is gen- 
erally the case, the militia were either in sympathy with the strikers or were 
afraid of them. As a final resort, an appeal was made to the United States 
government, whose soldiei's understand only one duty, that of obeying orders. 

The strikers stopped all trains in Baltimore and Marti nsbui-g, West Vir- 
ginia, and defied the authorities. The militia were scattered, but a few regulars 
were sufficient to raise the blockade. On the 20th of July, in an attempt of the 
rioters to resist the clearing of the streets in Baltimore, nine persons were killed 
and a score wounded. The strike extended until it included the whole country, 
with the exception of the cotton-growing States. 

The most dangerous outbreak was in Pittsburg, where an immense mob 



fe 



THE NEZ PERCE WAB. 429 

held control of the city foi' two days. Disorder and violence reigned, and the 
authorities were powerless. When on the 21st soldiers appeared on the streets 
they were assailed with stones and pistol-shots, and they replied with several 
volleys which killed and wounded a number of rioters. This only added fuel 
to tlie flames, and the mob became more savage than ever. The soldiers were 
attacked so furiously that they ran into a roundhouse of the railway company 
for protection. There they were besieged, and oil cars were rolled against the 
building and fired with the purpose of burning the soldiers to death. The fire- 
men were not allowed to put out the flames, and it was several days before the 
defenders were rescued. 

The infuriated mob applied the torch to the buildings of the railroad com- 
pany, gutted cars, scattered or carried off the contents, burst open and drank 
barrels of whiskey, and raged like so many, wild beasts. Before the territie out- 
break subsided, the Union Depot and all the machine shops and railway build- 
ings in the city were burned. Among the losses were 126 locomotives and 
2,500 cars laden with valuable freight. The regular troops finally subdued the 
rioters, but not until a hundred people had been killed and property destroyed 
to the value of five million dollars. 

There was rioting accompanied with violence in Chicago, Buffalo, Colum- 
bus, Ohio, and at many other points. In C'liicago, on the 26th of July, nine- 
teen 25ersons were killed. St. Louis was disturbed, but there was no special out- 
break. In San Francisco a savage attack was made on the Chinese and tlie 
managers of the lumber yards. At one period, on 6,000 miles of railroad not 
a wheel was turned, and 100,000 laborers were idle or assisting in the rioting. 
Such violent ebullitions soon expend themselves. By-and-by the men began 
returning to their work, and within two or three weeks all the railroads were 
operating as usual. 

About this time the elevated railway system was adopted in New York 
City. It has proved so convenient that many lines have been added in the 
metropolis, and the same means of travel is used in other cities, though of late 
years electric trolley cars have been widely introduced. 

THE NEZ PERCE WAR. 

When Lewis and Clarke journeyed across the upper part of our country, at 
the beginning of the century, they made a treaty with the Nez Perce Indians, 
whose home was in the northwest. They were visited afterward by missionaries, 
and no trouble occurred with them until after our war with Mexico. A large 
section of their land was bought by the United States government in 1854, and 
a reservation was set apart for them in northwestern Idaho and northeastern 
Oregon. As in the case of the Seminoles of Florida however, many of the chiefs 



430 HAYES, GARFIELD, AND ARTHUR, 

were opposed to the sale of their lands, and, when the date came for their depar- 
ture, refused to leave. 

Chief Joseph of the Nez Perces was one of the most remarkable Indians of 
the century. He Avas shrewd, sagacious, brave, and remarkably intelligent. 
General Wesley Merritt, of the United States army, has pronounced his military 
genius of the higliest order, and, in the incidents we are about to narrate, his 
exploit in its way has never been surpassed. A good many people will recall 
seeing Joseph at the ceremonies at the tomb of General Grant in 1897, where 
his fine military appearance attracted much attention. 

In 1877, General Howard, commanding the department of the Columbia, 
marched arainst the troublesome Nez Perces with a small force of regulars. 
Being too weak to fight the soldiers. Chief Joseph, at the head of his band, 
repeatedly eluded them with masterly skill. This strange chase continued for 
hundreds of miles, Joseph keeping his women, children, and impedimenta not 
only intact, but beyond reach of the pursuers, who were filled with admiration 
of his genius. In the autumn of 1877, the Nez Perces passed through the moun- 
tains of northern Montana, where they were confronted by Colonel Miles and 
the regulars. Even then Joseph could not be brought to battle, and crossed the 
Missouri near the mouth of the Mussel Shell. In the Bear Paw IMountains, 
however, his camp was surrounded and he was brought to bay. The Nez 
Perces fought with great bravery, but were defeated. Joseph faced the inevit- 
able, and, walking forward to where General Howard was sitting on his horse, 
handed him his rifle. Then, pointing to the sun in the sky, he said : " Fi'om 
where the sun is in yonder heavens, I fight the white man no more." 

General Howard admired tlie valiant and chivalrous warrior, wlio had 
conducted his campaign not only with rare skill, but without any of the out- 
rages and cruelties which seem natural to the American race. He took his 
hand, and promised to be his friend. General Howard was able to keep his 
promise, and secured such a favorable location for Joseph and his band that 
they have been peaceable and satisfied ever since. 

EEMONETIZATION OF SILVER. 

The money or currency question has long been a disturbing factor in poli- 
tics. During the war the silver currency had been out of circulation, its place 
being taken for awhile by postage stamps and afterward by " shinplasters," which 
were paper fractional parts of a dollar. In 1873, Congress made gold the exclu- 
sive money standard. Silver depreciated some ten per cent., and the " hard 
money " people opposed the measures that were set on foot to remonetize silver; 
that is, to bring it into circulation again. Such a bill was passed, then vetoed 
by the President, promptly repassed over his veto, and it was ordered that the 



THE FISHERY AWARD. 



4;il 



coinage of silver should proceed at a rate not to exceed $2,000,000 a mouth. 
About this time (December 18, 1878), gold and paper money for the first time 
in seventeen years was of equal value. 

In accordance with the law of 1875, specie payments by the United States 
government was effected January 1, 1879. At that time there was an accumu- 
lation of $138,000,000 in 
the United States treas- 
ury, nearly all of it gold, 
representing forty per 
cent, of the outstanding 
bonds. The mere knowl- 
e d g e of this fact so 
strengthened the public 
credit that, instead of the 
anticipated rush on the 
1st of January, only $11,- 
000,000 was offered for 
redemption. The prob- 
lem of specie payment 
proved to be a bugbear. 

THE FISHERY AWARD. 

By the treaty of 
Washington, signed in 
1872, Americans were al- 
lowed to take fish of 
every kind, except shell- 
fish, on the seacoasts and 
shores and in the bays, 
harbors, and creeks of the 
provinces of Quebec, 
Nova Scotia, New Bruns- 
wick, Prince Edward's Is- 
land, and the adjacent is- 
lands, withoutrestriction as 
to the distance from shore. In return for this privilege, our government agreed tc 
charge a duty upon certain kinds of fish brought by British subjects into Ameri- 
can harbors. There were other mutual concessions, and, in order to balance 
matters and make everything smooth, the whole question was placed in the 
hands of an arbitration commission, which began its sessions in the summer of 




Wff 



r 



GHANT AT ■WINDSOK CASTLE. 



432 HAYES, GARFIELD, AND ARTHUR. 

1877, at Halifax. The commission included a member appointed by the Queen, 
one by the President, and the third by the Austrian ambassador at the Court of 
St. James. Our country was astounded by the verdict ot" this commission, whi<;h 
was that the United States should pay the sum of $5,000,000 to the British 
government. Even England was surin'ised, and our government was disposed 
to refuse to accept the verdict ; but to do that would have established a bad pre- 
cedent, and the sum named was paid to Great Britain in the autumn of 1878. 

THE YELLOW FEVER SCOURGE. 

Yellow fever has been one of the most dreadful scourges that our country 
has suffered. It first appeared on this continent in 1780, when Boston was 
ravaged in the summer of tliat year. It afterward appeared in New fork and 
Philadelphia, especially In 1793 and 1797, after which its visitations, have been 
mainly confined to the South, where the sanitation measures have been less 
rigid than in the North. It has been proven that strict quarantine and abso- 
lute cleanliness are safeguards against its entrance, though, after the frightful 
plague has once appeared in a place, it is impossible to stamp (t out. It sub- 
sides before the approach of frost and cold weather, and the cure for those 
smitten is to carry them to cool elevations. Thus far science has not been able 
to discover the real nature of yellow fever, nor to provide a remedy. It has 
been established, however, that it is due to bacilli or disease germs, as is the 
case with cholera, consumjition, and many other diseases, and there is reason to 
believe a specific remedy will soon be brought to light. 

One of the most destructive visitations of yellow fever was in the summer 
and autumn of 1873. Memphis and New Orleans suffered the most, and at 
one time those cities were abandoned by all who could leave them. Other por- 
tions of the country contributed every possible assistance in the way of medical 
help, nurses, and money, but before the scourge was extirpated by cool weather 
fully 15,000 persons had succumbed. 

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1880. 

The Republican National Convention was held in Chicago at the opening 
of June. As General Grant had returned from his memorable tour round the 
world, having been received everywhere with the highest honors, a determined 
effort was now made to renominate him for a third term. Roscoe Conkling, 
United States senator from New York, was the leader in the movement, and the 
whole number of Grant's supporters was 306, who without a break cast their 
vote for him thirty-six times in succession. They failed because of the wide- 
spread oi^position to any man holding the exalted office for a longer period than 
Washington, the Father of his Country. 



I 



PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1878. 



433 



The principal rivals of General Grant were James G. Blaine, of Maine, and 
John Sherman, of Ohio. There being a deadlock, the sujaporters of these two 
candidates united and thereby nominated James A. Garliek!, of Ohio, with 
Chester A. Artliur, of New York, as the nominee for Vice-Presid'Cnt. 




GilANT IN JAPAN. 



The Democratic Convention, which met in Cincinnati in the latter part of 
June, i^laced in nomination General Wiufield S. Hancock, of New York, and 
William H. English, of Indiana. The prospect of Hancock's election was 

28 



434 



HAYES, GARFIELD, AND ARTHUR. 



excellent, but lie destroyed it by one of tliose unfortunate ex^iressions wbicb more 
than once have defeated candidates for high office. When questioned con- 
cerning the tariff he expressed the ojnnion that it was a "local issue," a remark 
which many accepted as dis2:ilaying ignorance of the important subject, and 
they, therefore, voted against him. The result was as follows : James A.. 
Garfield and Chester A. Arthur, 214 electoral votes; W. S. Hancock and W. H. 
English, 155; James B. Weaver und B. J Cliambers, the Greenback candidates, 

received 307,306 popular votes; Neal 
Dow and H. A. Thompson, the 
Prohibition, 10,305; and John W. 
PheljJS and S. C. Pomercy, Ameri- 
can, 707; but none of the three 
secured an electoral vote. 

James A. Garfield was 
born at Orange, Cuyahoga 
County, Ohio, November 
19, 1831. While he was 
an infant his father died 
and he was left to the care 
of his noble mother, to 
wliom he was devotedly 
attached. 

Garfield spent his boy- 
hood in tlie backwoods, and 
at one time was the driver 
of a canal-boat. He became 
strong, rugged, and a fine 
athlete, and at the same 
time obtained the rudiments 
of an English education. 
At the age of seventeen he 
attended the high school 
at Cliester, and by naru study acquired an excellent knowledge of Latin, Greek, 
and algebra. He was a student at Hiram College, and became an instructor 
in 1854. The same year he entered Williams College, from which he was 
graduated with honor in 1856. He returned to Ohio, and was appointed a 
professor in Hiram College. He indulged his taste for politics and law, and 
served for a time in the State Senate, but was president of the college when 
the war broke out. He at once volunteered, and was appointed lieutenant-colone) 
and afterward colonel of the Forty-second Regiment of Ohio Volunteers. 










J'Hr^Z'r'jS-'^ 



.\-t^>CP£ ft 



THE BOY JAMES GAKFIELD BKINGING HIS FIKST 
DAY'S EARNINGS TO HIS MOTHER. 



CIVIL SERVICE REFORM. 



435 



Garfield displayed remarkable ability in the military service, and had he 
remained would have won high distinction. As a brigadier-general he did fine 
work in Kentucky and Tennessee. He was chief-of-staff to General Rosecrans, 
and showed great gallantry in the tremendous battle of Chickamauga. He was 
in the field when elected to Congress in 1862. His desire was to remain, but, at 
the personal request of President Lincoln, he entered Congress, where it was felt 
his help was needed in the important legislation before the country. The estimate 
in which he was held by his fellow-citizens is shown by the fact that he served 
as a member of Congress for seventeen years. In 1879 he was chosen United 
States senator, but did not take his »"^ 
seat because of his nomination for 
the presidency. 

CIVIL SERVICE REFORM. 

The question of "civil service 
reform," as it is termed, assumed 
prominence during the term of Hayes. 
This, as all understand, means tliat 
the public offices should be filled 
not in accordance with politics, but 
be determined by fitness. The 
charge has been made with reason 
that, when public servants have be- 
come skilled in the discharge of 
their duties, they are turned out 
to make room for the friends of the 
new administration, where 2^olitics 
are different. In that way public 
service is injured. 

The opponents of civil service re- 
form maintain, on the other hand, that 
there are thousands out of office who are just as capable as those in office, and that 
the party ought to reAvard those that have helped it to success. " To the victor 
belong the spoils" was the policy of Andrew Jackson, and it has been followed 
in a greater or less degree ever since. The cry of civil service reform was long 
a well-sounding motto with which to catch votes, but no serious effi^rt was made 
to enforce it. Hayes tried his hand, but the clamor for political rewards was so 
insistent that he gave it up, and matters dropped back into their old ruts. The 
vexatious question was inherited by Garfield, and the hope was general that he 




JAMES A. QABFIELD. 

flSSl-lSSl.) One partial lerm, 1881. 



436 



HAYES, GARFIELD, AND ARTHUR. 



would not only make a determined eifort, but would succeed in carrying out the 
principles of real civil service reform. 

The task soon proved beyond the capacity of himself or any human being. 
It seemed as if nearly every man in the country had been the deciding factor in 
the election of the President, while the "original Garfield man" would have 
formed a full regiment. The executive threw up his hands, and decided to pass 
over the plague to the next administration. 

The quarrel produced a split in the Republican jaarty itself, and two wiugs 
were formed, known as " Half-breeds " and " Stalwarts." At the head of the 

latter was the brilliant New York 
senator, Roscoe Conkling, who had 
been so persistent in his efforts to 
renominate General Grant for a 
third term. The leader of the 
Half-breeds was James G. Blaine, as 
brilliant as Conkling, while both 
were strong personal op^aonents. 
The Stalwarts claimed the right of 
dividing the offices, as had been the 
custom for a century, the senators 
and representatives apportioning the 
plums among the horde of claim- 
ants. The President was supported 
by the Half-breeds in his claim that 
it was his province to bestow these 
gifts as he saw fit. 

The collectorship of the port of 
New York is one of the best offices 
at the disposal of the administration. 
The President nominated Judge 
William Robertson. He was per- 
sonally distasteful to Conkling, and, when he found himself unable to pre- 
vent his confirmation by the Senate, he and Thomas C. Piatt, the junior sena- 
tor from New York, resigned their seats. Both afterward sought and failed to 
secure a re-election from the Legislature. Congress adjourned in June. 




THE AGED MOTHJilR OF PBESIDENT 
GAKFIELD. 



ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 

Relieved from the pressure of his duties, the President now made hia 
arrangements for placing his two sons in Williams College and joining his 
invalid wife at the seashore. On the 2d of July, 1881, accompanied by Secre- 



ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 



437 



tary Blaine and several friends, he rode to the Baltimore Railroad station to board 
the cars. He had just entered the building an el was chatting with his secretary, 
when a miscreant named Charles Julias Guiteau stepped uji behind him and shot 
him with a pistol in the back. The wounded President sank to the floor and 
was carried to the executive mansion, while the assassin was hurried to prison 
before he could be lynched, as he assuredly would have been but for such 
prompt action by the authorities. 

The shock to the country was scarely less than when Abraham Lincoln 
was shot in Ford's Theatre. Although the wound of the President was severe,, 
it was not be- 
lieved to be 
nece ssarily 
fatal. He re- 
c 8 i V e d the 
best medical 
attention, and 
prayers for his 
recovery were 
sent up from 
every quarter 
of the land and 
across the sea. 
Daily bulletins 
of his condition 
were issued 
and messages 
f sympathy 
were received 
from many 
crowned heads 

on the other side of the Atlantic. The sufferer was removed on the 6th of Sep- 
tember to Elberon, New Jersey, where it was hoped the invigorating sea-air would 
bring back strength to his wasted frame. These hopes were vain, and, on the 
19th of September, he quietly breathed his last. It may be noted that this date 
was the anniversary of the battle of Cliickamauga, where General Garfield per- 
formed his most brilliant service in the war. Amid universal expressions of 
sympathy the remains were borne to Cleveland, where a fine monument has 
been erected to his memory. 

Guiteau was a miserable " crank," who had long dogged the President for 
an appointment, failing to obtain which he shot him. That his brain was partly 




ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT GAHFIELD. 



438 



HAYES, GARFIELD, AND ARTHUR. 



awry, with perhaps a taint of insanity, cannot be questioned, but, none the less, 
it was shown that he clearly knew the difference between right and wrong and 
was morally responsible for his unsj^eakable crime. He was given a fair trial, 
and, having been found guilty, was hanged on the 30th of June, 1882. 




1^ 



t 



^i.^: 



' ■ 1 ' J J f_-v, : 






">^ : 



n 



M 



lo 



THE TWENTY-FIRST PRESIDENT. 

Chester Alan Arthur, who was immediately sworn in as President, wa.s 
born in Vermont, October 5, 1830. He received his education at Union 
College, from which he was graduated in 1849. He taught school for a time 
in his native State, and then removed to the City of New York, where he 
studied law and was admitted to the bar. His ability speedily brought him 
to the front and gave him a lucrative practice. He was quartermaster-general 

of the State of New York durino; the war and 
displayed fine executive ability. When the war 
ended, he resumed the practice of law and was 
made collector of customs for the jjort of New 
York in 1871. Seven years later he was re- 
moved by President Hayes, and shortly after he en- 
tered the presidential canvass of 1880. He died 
November 18, 1886. 

Arthur took the oath of office in New York, 
on the day succeeding the death of Garfield, and 
left at once for Washington. Chief Justice Waite 
administered the oath again to him in the vice- 

TABLET IN THE WAITING- • i ,, a .1 ^ /-( 

ROOM OF THE KAiLWAY president s room. Among those present were (jen- 
was^sh'^^^^"'^ gabpield ^j.j^i Qj.^jjt^ General Sherman, Senator Sherman, 

and ex-President Hayes. 

While President Arthur showed slight disj^osition to change the policy of 
the administration, he inherited many vexatious matters from his predecessor. 
One of the worst of these was the " Star Route Frauds." 

The ra^^id settlement of the AVest naturally created a demand for improved 
mail facilities. In a number of places, fast mail routes had been organized by 
the postoffice department, and these were designated on the official documents 
by the figures of stars. The authorized expenditures of the j^ostoffice depart- 
ment were clearly defined, but a clause in the law permitted it to " expedite " 
such routes as proved to be inefficient. This oj^ened the door for fraud, and, as 
is always the case, it lost no time in entering. 

The contracts were let at the legal rates, and then, availing themselves of 
the legal authority, the same routes were " exjiedited " at immense profits. The 
money thus stolen — and it amounted to immense sums — was divided among the 



THE CHINESE. 



43a 



parties letting the contracts and tlie contractors. Stephen W. Dorsey, John W. 
Dorsey, and Tliomas J. Brady — formerly second-assistant postmaster-general — 
were indicted for a conspiracy to defraud the government and enrich themselves. 
All were prominent politicians, and their trial attracted national attention. Al- 
though the testimony seemed to establish the guilt of the parties accused, all 
three escaped, the miscarriage of justice causing a qualm of disgust and indig- 
nation among right-minded citizens. 

One of the famous structures in the country is the Brooklyn Bridge, which 
was completed and ojiened for ti-affic May 24, 1883. Operations on it were 
begun January 3, 1870, and the 
towers were finished six years later. 
The first wire reaching from tower 



to tower was 



strung 



August 14, 




■^ 



1876. Each of the four cables con- 
tains 5,296 wires, untwisted, lying 
straight, and held in place by other 
wires coiled tightly around them. 
The length of the main sjian is 
1,595J feet; the two land sjians are 
930 feet each ; the masonry a]> 
proach on the New York side is 
1,562 feet long, and that on the 
Brooklyn side 971 feet. The total 
distance, therefore, is about 6,000 
feet, or more than a mile. Tiie 
middle of the main span is about 
135 feet above the water in summer, 
and in winter, owing to the con- 
traction caused by cold, it is three 
feet more. The height is such that 
nearly any ship can pass under the 
bridge without lowering its top-mast. Twenty persons were killed during the 
construction of the bridge. Although the day was inclement and unfavorable, 
the opening of the structure to travel was attended with many ceremonies, in- 
cluding civic and military processions, oratory, salutes by naval vessels, and 
illuminations and fireworks in the evening. 



■L 



CHESTER ALAN ARTHUR. 

(1830-18S6.) One partial term, 1881-1885. 



THE CHINESE. 

The State of California, on account of its situation, received thousands of 
Chinese immigrants every year from across the Pacific. These people live so 



440 



HAYES, GARFIELD, AND ARTHUR. 



meanly that they could afford to work for wages upon which a white man would 
starve. Consequently they crowded out other laborers and caused so much dis- 
content that something in the nature of a revolt took place against them. The 
grievance of the Californians was so well-founded that Congress, while Hayes 
was President, passed a bill which forbade the inunigration of Chinese laborers to 
this country, and requiring those already here to take out certificates, if they left 
the United States, so as to identify themselves before being allowed to return. 
President Hayes vetoed the bill, but it was passed in 1882. The 




THE BROOKLYN BBIDGE. 



ingenuity of the Chinese has enabled them to evade the law in many instances, 
but their immigration was substantially checked. Probably there is no more 
degraded community on the face of the earth than the part in San Francisco 
known as " Chinatown." Most of the yellow celestials live underground, where 
their unspeakable villainies are a flaming reproach to the authorities that permit 
them. 

THE MORMONS. 

The Mormons proved a thorn in the side of the body politic. Their polyg- 
amous practices led to the passage in 1882 of Senator Edmunds' bill which 



EXPLORATION OF ALASKA. 



441 



excluded polygamists from holding office. A good many persons were convicted 
and sentenced for violation of the law, which was upheld by the Supreme Court. 
This legislation, while abating in considerable degree the practice of 
polygamy, did not bring it to an end. There are still many persons in Utah 
who have a number of wives, and it will need more stringent legislation for the 
effectual suppression of the evil. 



EXPLORATION OF ALASKA. 

Attention was so generally directed toward Alaska, our recent purchase 




SCENE IN CHINATOWN, SAN FEANCISCO. 

from Russia, that an exj)loring expedition visited that country in 1883, under 
the command of Lieutenant Frederick Schwatka. It should be stated that the 
party, which was a small one, went thither without authority from the govern- 
ment, its departure from Portland, Oregon, May 22d, being secret. It was gone 
for several months, and brought back interesting and valuable information. 
One bit of knowledge was new. The explorers learned that the length of the 
great river Yukon is 2,044 miles, which makes it the third in length in the 
United States, the fourth in North America, the seventh in the western hemis- 



442 HAYES, GARFIELD, AND ARTHUR. 

phere, and the seventeenth in the world. The area drained by this immense I 
stream is 200,000 square miles. 

THE YORKTOWN CENTENNIAL. 

We have learned of the centennial celebration of the birth of our republic 
in Philadelphia. Many other celebrations of important events were held in dif- 
ferent parts of the country, the most important of which was the commemoration j' 
of the great victory at Yorktown, which brought the Revolution to a close and 
secured the independence of our country. 

As was befitting, preparations were made on a grand scale for this celebra- 
tion. Thousands journeyed thither days before the exercises opened. President 
Arthur arrived at ten o'clock on the morning of October 18, 1881, in a govern- 
ment steamer, his ajsj^roach being announced by salute after salute, each of 
twenty-one guns, from the different ships of the fleet. 

The exercises were opened with prayer by Rev. Robert Nelson, grandson 
of Governor Nelson, who commanded the Virginia militia at Yorktown and 
directed the fire so as to destroy his own home, in which Cornwallis had his 
headquarters, after which Governor Holliday, of Virginia, made the address. 
At its conclusion, the sword was held up to view which was presented to the 
horseman who rode at high speed to Philadelphia with the news of the sur- 
render of Cornwallis. Another interesting fact was that W. W. Henry, the 
grandson of Patrick Henry, was sitting at that moment on tlie platform. 

The corner-stone of the monument was laid with Masonic ceremonies. The 
chair in whicli the Grand Master for the occasion sat was one that had been 
used by Washington when he was Grand Master of the Virginia Masons. The 
sash and apron were presented to him at Mount Vernon in 1784, and had been 
worked by Mrs. Lafayette. The gavel was made from a portion of the quarter- 
deck of the United States frigate Lawrence, flagship of Commodore Perry, when 
he won his great victory on Lake Erie in September, 1813. Among the guests 
were descendants of Rochambeau, Steuben, and many German and French 
friends. The centennial ode was written by Paul H. Hayne, the Southern 
poet (who died in 1886), and tlie oration of the day was by Robert C. 
Wintlirop. 

The final ceremonies at Yorktown occurred on tlie 20th of October, at 
which time 9,000 sailors, regulars and militia made an impressive spectacle. 
They were under the command of General Hancock, and represented the thir- 
teen original States, with a number of others. They passed in review before 
the President, both branches of Congress, governors of the States and their 
staffs, and the French and German guests of the government. 




CHAPTER XXL 



ADMINISTRATION OK CLEVELAN D (FIRST) 
OK HARRISON, 1885-1893. 



AND 



Grover Cleveland — Completion of the Washington Monument — The Bartholdi Statue — Death of General 
Grant — Death of Vice-President Hendricks — The First Vice-President to Die in Office— George 
Clinton— Elbridge Gerry— William R. King— Henry Wilson— Death of General McClellan— Of 
General Hancock — His Career — The Dispute Between Capital and Labor — Arbitration — The Anarch- 
istic Outbreak in Chicago — The Charleston Earthquake — Conquest of the Apaches — Presidential 
Election of 1888 — Benjamin Harrison — The Johnstown Disaster — Threatened War with (Jhili — The 
Indian Uprising of 1890-91 — Admission of New States— Presidential Election of 1892. 

THE TWENTY-SECOND PRESIDENT. 

The city of Buffalo, N. Y., has the distinction of being the only one in the 
United States which has furnished 
two presidents of the country. Mil- | 
lard Fillmore hailed from Buffalo 
and Gi'over Cleveland went from 
that city to occupy the highest office 
in the gift of the American jjeople. 
His native place, however, was Cald- 
well, New Jersey, where he was 
born, March 18, 1837. He was the 
son of a clergyman and received a 
fair education in the public schools, 
and became an instructor for a time 
in an institution for the blind at 
Clinton, N. Y. He removed to 
Buffalo in 1855, and, having en- 
gaged in the study of law, soon be- 
came prominent at the bar. He was 
appointed assistant district attorney 
in 1863, and in 1870 was elected 
sheriff of the county. His course 
gained the confidence of the com- 
munity and led to his election as 
mayor of Buffalo, in 1881, though the city was naturally strongly Repubiicai 
in politics. 

(443) 




GKOVEK CLEVELAND. 

(1837- .) Two terms, 1885-1889— 189S-1897. 



444 ADMINISTRATION OF CLEVELAND. 

Mr. Cleveland added to his popularity by his able admiuistration and was 
nominated for govei-nor of the State in the autumn of the following year. His 
success by the unprecedented majority of 192,854 attracted national attention 
and led the Democrats to believe he was their most available candidate for the. 
presidency. His course as governor commended itself to his friends, who were 
so numerous that, when his name was presented at Chicago, he received 683 
votes against 137 for all others. 

It will be noted that Mr. Cleveland was the first Democratic President 
since the opening of the war. He assumed his office with the best wishes of the 
people, though it is worth noting in this place that the majority by which he 
was elected was much less than a glance at the returns would suggest. At a 
public reception of Mr. Blaine, during the canvass, a clergyman referred to the 
Democratic party as that of " E,um, Romanism, and Rebellion." This unfor- 
tunate expression drove away a number of votes from Mr. Blaine, who was 
defeated in New York by a few hundreds only ; but they were sufficient to turn 
the thirty-six electoral votes to Mr. Cleveland and secure his election by the 
majority already named. 



COMPLETION OF THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT. 

For years preceding the Civil War, and for a long time afterward, the 
Washington monument was a source of reproach and jest among the people, 
because so long a period was allowed to pass before itscom])letion. The corner- 
stone was laid July 4, 1848, at which time Robert C. Winthro]), Speaker of the 
•Touse of Representatives, delivered the address. The occasion was made 
lotable by the presence of Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, and 
r*resident Polk. The memorial to the greatest American citizen that ever lived 
was allowed to stand uncompleted for thirty-seven years, its formal dedication 
taking place February 21st (the 22d fell on Sunday), 1885. The address of 
the venerable W. W. Corcoran, first vice-president of the Washington Monu- 
ment Society, formed in 1833, was read by Dr. J. C. Welling, president of 
Jolumbia University, and the ceremonies were of an interesting character. 
The Masonic services were conducted by the Grand Lodge of the District of 
Columbia, which used the gavel that Washington had employed in laying the 
corner-stone of the national capitol, September 18, 1793, while the Bible was the 
one upon which he took his vows wdien made a Mason. A second Bible was 
the one upon which he was sworn into office, April 30, 1789, when inaugurated 
President of the United States. This relic is now the property of St. Johu 
Lodge, No. 1, of New York City. 

President Arthur's address was as follows : 



tl 



i 




WASHINGTON MONUMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C. 
(Height 555 feet; 



446 ADMINISTRATION OF CLEVELAND. 

" Fellow-Countrymen : Before the dawn of the century whose eventful 
years will soon have faded into the past — when death had but lately robbed the 
republic of its most beloved and illustrious citizen — the Congress of the United 
States pledged the faith of the nation that in this city, bearing his honored name, 
and then, as now, the seat of the general government, a monument should be 
erected 'to commemorate the great events of his military and political life.' 

"The stately column that stretches heavenward from the plain whereon 
we stand bears witness to all who behold it that the covenant which our fathers 
made their children have fulfilled. In the completion of this great work of 
patriotic endeavor there is abundant cause for national rejoicing; for while this 
structure shall endure it shall be to all mankind a steadfast token of the affec- 
tionate and reverent regard in which this people continue to hold the memory 
of Washington. Well may he ever kee]^ the foremost place in the hearts of his 
countrymen; the faith that never faltered; the wisdom that was broader and 
deeper than any learning taught in schools; the courage that shrank from no 
peril and was dismayed by no defeat; the loyalty that kept all selfish purposes 
subordinate to the demands of patriotism and honor; the sagacity that displayed 
itself in camp and cabinet alike; and, above all, that harmonious union of moral 
and intellectual qualities which has never found its parallel among men; these 
are the attributes of character which the intelligent thought of this century 
ascribes to the grandest figure of the last. 

"But other and more eloquent lips than mine will to-day rehearse to you 
the story of his noble life and its glorious achievements. To myself has been 
assigned a simpler and more formal duty, in fulfillment of which I do now, as 
President of the United States and in behalf of the people, receive this monu- 
ment from the hands of the builder, and declare it dedicated from this time 
forth to the immortal name and memory of George Washington." 

The ceremonies at the monument being completed, those within the capitol 
followed. General Sheridan was in charge of the military, and the oration of 
Robert C. Winthrop, who was kept away by illness, was read by Governor 
Long. John W. Daniel, a leading soldier on the side of the Confederacy 
during the Civil War and afterward a member of Congress from Virginia, 
delivered a graphic sketch of Washington, and closed with the eloquent 
peroration : 

"Long live the republic of Washington ! Respected by mankind, beloved 
by all its sons, long may it be the asylum of the poor and oppressed of all lands 
and religions — long may it be the citadel of that liberty which writes beneath 
the eagle's folded wings : 'We will sell to no man, we will deny to no man right 
and justice.' 



THE BARTHOLDI STATUE. 447 

" Long live the United States of America ! Filled with the free, magnani- 
mous sj^irit, crowned by the wisdom, blessed by the moderation, hovered over by the 
guardian angel of Washington's example, may they ever be worthy in all 
things to be defended by the blood of the brave who knew the rights of man — ■ 
may they each be a column, and all together, under the Constitution, a perpetual 
temple of jjeace, unshadowed by a Caesar's palace, at whose altar may freely 
commune all who seek the union of liberty and brotherhood. 

" Long live our country ! Oh, long through the undying ages may it 
stand, far removed in fact, as in space, from the Old World's feuds and follies — 
solitary and alone in its grandeur and glory — itself the immortal monument 
of him whom Providence commissioned to teach man the power of truth, and 
to prove to the nations that their Redeemer liveth." 

It is worth noting that the Washington Monument with its 555 feet is the 
highest in the world ; the Cathedral at Cologne, 511 feet, is next; while the 
height of the Great Pyramid is 486 feet. The cap-stone was put in position 
December 6, 1884, and the whole cost of the monument was $1,187,710, of 
which Congress furnished $900,000. An iron stairway of 900 steps and aa 
elevator provide means for ascending the interior. 

THE BARTHOLDI STATUE. 

When a person enters New York harbor on his visit or retura to the New 
World, the most striking object upon which his eyes rest is the Statue of Liberty. 
This represents the idea of Liberty enlightening the world, as conceived by 
Frederick Auguste Bartholdi, the eminent French sculptor. He began circula- 
ting his subscriptions for the work through France in 1874. The popularity 
of the scheme is attested by the fact that contributions were received from 180 
cities, forty general councils, a large number of chambers of commerce and 
of socities, and more than 10,000 subscribers. On the 22d of February, 1877, 
Congress voted to accept, the gift, and set apart Bedlow's Island for the site. 
The statue was finished in 1883, and displayed to public view for some time in 
Paris. Its official presentation to the minister of the United States took place 
July 4, 1884. 

The French transport Isere, with the Liberty statue on board, arrived at 
New York, June 24, 1885, and was saluted and welcomed by a hundred 
different vessels. The dedication ceremonies, October 28, 1886, were among the 
most impressive ever witnessed in the metropolis of our country. Among those 
on the reviewing stand, near the Worth Monument, were President Cleveland, 
General Sheridan, the members of the President's cabinet, M. Bartholdi, M. de 
Lesseps, representative of the diplomatic corps at Washington, and many 



distinguished American citizens. 



448 



ADMINISTRATION OF CLEVELAND. 



The following facts will give an idea of the size of this great statue : the 
forefinger is more than eight feet long ; the second joint is about five feet in 
circumference ; the finger-nail is a foot long, and the nose nearly four feet ; the 
head is fourteen and a half feet high, and can accommodate forty persons, while 
the hollow torch will hold twelve persons. The copper sheets which form the 
outside of the statue weigh eighty-eight tons. From the base to the top of the 
torch is slightly more than 150 feet, which is 305 feet above low-water mark. 



DEATH OF GENERAL GRANT. 

In no event of Cleveland's first administration was the public more deeply 




THE F0NERAL THAIN OF GENERAL GRANT PASSING WEST POINT. 

concerned than in the death of General Grant, the foremost defender of the 
Union. After his return from his triumphant journey around the world, he 
engaged in business in the city of New York. The sonl of honor himself, it 
was hard for him to believe the dishonesty of others ; l>ut lie became the victim 
of unscrupulous persons, and lost not only all his own savings but those of many 
of his friends. He did everything in his power to make good his losses, but 
succeeded only to a slight extent. He was ruined financially, though a grateful 
nation would never permit him to suffer want. 

It was at this sad period that a cancer developed at the root of his tongue, 
and, though he received the best medical attention in the country, the malignant 
excrescence soon made it evident that he was beyond human help. He devoted 



'I 



OTHER VICE-PRESIDENTS WHO DIED IN OFFICE. 449 

himself heroically to writing his memoirs, and, with the grim determination 
which was so marked a feature of his character, he fought oiF the last great 
enemy until the valuable work was finished. 

General Grant's last days were spent with his family at Mount McGregor 
in New Yoi-k State, where he quietly breathed his last on the evening of July 
22, x885. The body was embalmed and removed to the City Hall in New 
York, where it was viewed by mourning thousands before its removal to the 
lust resting-place in Riverside Park. The final impressive scenes, when the re- 
mains were deposited in the mausoleum on the banks of the Hudson, took place 
in 1897. 

DEATH OF VICE-PRESIDENT HENDRICKS. 

Thomas A. Hendricks, Vice-President of the United States, died November 
25, 1885, at his home in Indianapolis, from paralysis of the heart. He was 
born in Ohio in 1819, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1843. He was 
elected to the Indiana Legislature in 1848, and three years later became Demo- 
cratic member of Congress from the central district of Indiana. He was chosen 
a United States senator in 1868, and strongly opposed the impeachment of 
President Johnson. He was jDromineiitly named several times for the presidency 
of the United States. ■ In Indianapolis, where he had long made his home, he 
was universally respected by members of all parties. 

OTHER VICE-PRESIDENTS WHO DIED IN OFFICE. 

Since Mr. Hendricks was not the first Vice-President to die in office, it will 
be interesting to comjjlete the list. George Clinton served one term under Jef- 
ferson, and had nearly ended another under Madison, when he died in 1812. 
His career had been extraordinary. He was a soldier in the French and Indian 
War, was a sailor on a privateer, and became a brigadier-general in the Revolu- 
tion, but was unsuccessful in his defense of the Highland forts in 1777. At one 
time he was a member of the Provincial Congress and was the first governor of 
New York, serving for eighteen years, from 1777 to 1795, and again 1801-04, 
when he became Vice-President. His death occurred in Washington, and the 
eight pall-bearers were Revolutionary soldiers. 

It was a curious coincidence that the next Vice-President to die in oflSce was 
the immediate successor of Clinton, Elbridge Gerry, who died November 23, 
1814. He was a native of Massachusetts, a member of its colonial House of 
Representatives and a delegate to the Continental Congress. He signed the 
Declaration of Independence and aided in framing the Constitution, though he 
refused to sign it, on the ground that it conferred too much power on the national 
government. He held a number of important public offices and was governor 
of Massachusetts in 1810 and 1811. In the latter year, the Republicans (modern 



450 ADMINIHTKATION OF CLEVELAJSU. 

Democrats) carried out a redistricting scheme by whicli the Essex district took 
a form which many fancied bore a resemblance to a salamander. It was from 
this incideiat that the word " gerrymander," so often heard in politics in these 
days, took its name. 

It will be recalled that when Franklin Pierce became President, the Vice- 
President, William R. King, was an invalid in Cuba, where he took the oath of 
office before the American consul. He was in the last stages of consumption 
and died shortly after his return to his home in Alabama. 

Henry Wilson, Vice-President with General Grant, died November 25, 
1875, his death being hastened, it is believed, by the news of the death of his 
intimate friend. Senator Ferry, of Connecticut. 

The death of General McClellan has already been mentioned as taking 
place on the 29th of October, 1885. A few months later, February 9, 1886, 
General Hancock died at his home on Governor's Island. 

DEATH OF GENERAL HANCOCK HIS CAREER. 

General Winfield Scott Hancock was an ideal American soldier and officer, 
brave, chivalrous, courteous to foe as well as friend, patriotic, a gentleman at all 
times and under all circumstances, genial, remarkably handsome and prepos- 
sessing in manner, who made friends everywhere. His conduct of political 
affiiirs in a section of the South during the troublous reconstruction days won 
the commendation of his government and the i-espect of the South, who pro- 
nounced him a "just man," for whom they formed a strong personal affection. 
But for Hancock's unfortunate slii), he assuredly would have been elected Presi- 
dent of the United States in 1880. 

The two peculiarities of Hancock's birth was that he was a twin and was 
born on St. Valentine's day, February 14, 1824, in Montgomery County, Penn- 
sylvania. Appointed to West Point, he found among his fellow-cadets U. S. 
Grant, G. B. McClellan, Rosecrans, Longstreet, and Stonewall Jackson. 

Hancock entered the Mexican War as second lieutenant, taking part in 
three engagements, receiving a wound and winning the brevet of first lieutenant. 
He was appointed quartermaster in 1855, with the rank of captain. Three 
years later he was a member of the expedition to Utah to bring the Mormons to 
terms. When the Civil War broke out, he was at Los Angeles, Southern 
California, where considerable sympathy was shown for the Southern Con- 
federacy. The tact of the United States forces in that section held the State 
true, a patriotic speech of General Hancock contributing greatly to the same 
end. 

His patriotism would not allow him to remain idle, and, when he learned 
of the grave condition of affairs in the East, he applied to be called thither. 



DEATH OF GENERAL HANCOCK. 



451 



The request was granted, and he was so anxious to serve his country that he 
did not jjause to call on his parents while on the way to Washington. 

Hancock's first appointment was as quartermaster-general in General 
Robert Anderson's command in Kentucky ; but McClellan, who knew his 
worth, made a personal request of President Lincoln to apjioint him brigadier- 
general. His commission was dated September 23, 1861. McClellan said of 
him : " He was a man of the most chivalrous courage and of superb presence, 
especially in action ; he had a wonderfully quick and correct eye for ground 




CITY HALL, PHILADELPHIA. 

Equestrian statues of Generals Reynolds and JlcClellaii ornamcut the plaza, and one of General Hancock is to be erected on one 

of the vacant corners. 

and for handling troops ; his judgment was good, and it would be difficult to 
find a better corps commander." 

General Hancock gave invaluable help in moulding the Army of the 
Potomac into the magnificent form it attained, and his brigade was conceded to 
be the finest and most effective in the whole army at the time the landing wa* 
made on the peninsula between Chesapeake Bay and the James River. 

In the bloody battle of Williamsburg, his skill and personal courage were 
of the highest order. Making a feint of retreating, he drew the enemy after 



452 ADMINISTRATION OF CLEVELAND. 

him into the position he intended, when he turned and assailed them with a 
furious musketry fire. It was his men who captured the fii'st colors taken by 
the Army of the Potomac, and it was on that occasion that Hancock used the 
expression which has been often quoted. In the midst of the tumult and swirl of 
battle he shouted : " Now, gentlemen, we will give them the bayonet ! " Han- 
cock received the personal thanks of McClellan for his fine work. 

He was always loyal to his superiors, McClellan, Burnside, McClellan 
again. Hooker, and Meade, rapidly rising in prominence until at the great battle 
of Gettysburg he contributed perhaps more than any single man to the success 
of the Union arms. Among the titles applied to him by his admiring country- 
men were "The Superb " and " The Hero of Gettysburg." 

The Confederates who came in contact with him expressed their admiration 
of his dauntless courage and coolness. He was painfully wounded, but, while 
lying on a stretcher, he sent a message to General Meade that the Confederate 
army was in retreat. Meade replied with his grateful thanks and sympathy, 
and Congress also thanked him. 

His ardent ])atriotism placed him in the saddle before his wound had 
healed, and at one time during the battle of the Wilderness he was obliged to 
give up his command. At Chancellorsville he captured the whole division of 
General Edward Johnson. When that officer was brought into Hancock's tent 
the latter extended his hand to his old acquaintance, exclaiming heartily, " How 
are you, Ned ? " 

" I refuse to take your hand," replied the humiliated prisoner. 

" All right," said Hancock, " I shouldn't have offered it to you under any 
other circumstances." 

Hancock was in command of the Second Army Corps fjr the last time at 
the battle of Boydton. His remarkable skill in training soldiers caused Secretary 
Stanton to assign to him the task of organizing the First Veteran Corps, com- 
posed of soldiers, all of whom had been in service two years. He afterward 
commanded the Army of the Shenandoah, and was in charge at Washington at 
the time of the assassination of Lincoln. 

In 18(39, he was transferred from the command of the division of the 
Atlantic and assigned to that of Dakota, where he remained until 1872, when 
he resumed command of the division of the Atlantic. His last public appear- 
ance was when he commanded the military forces which assisted in the funeral 
ceremonies of General Grant. 

As a proof that General Hancock's skill with the pen was hardly less than 
that with the sword, the following extract is given from an article by him on 
the battle of Gettysburg : 

" Cemetery Hill has since become consecrated ground. The place whert" 



CAPITAL AND LABOR. 45.T 

Greneral Howard was superseded in command on the first day of the fight is 
now covered with the graves of thousands of gallant soldier.s whose bones lie 
buried at the base of the beautiful monumental column which commemoi'ates 
their fame. Two of the marble statues ornamenting the pedestal personify War 
and History. War, symbolized by a soldier resting from the conflict, narrates 
to History the story of the struggle and the deeds of the martyr-heroes who fell 
in that famous battle.. In remembrance of these noble comrades who laid down 
their lives for the general weal, it were simply sacrilege for any survivor to pour 
into the ears of History an incorrect account of the contest, still more to assume 
to himself honors belonging perhaps less to the living than to the dead. 

" The historian of the future who essays to tell the tale of Gettysburg 
undertakes an onerous task, a high responsibility, a sacred trust. Above all 
things, justice and truth should dwell in his mind and heart. Then, dipping 
his pen as it were in the crimson tide, the sunshine of heaven lighting his page, 
giving 'honor to whom honor is due,' doing even justice to the splendid valor 
alike of friend and foe, he may tell the world how the i-ain descended in streams 
of fire, and the floods came in the billows of rebellion, and the winds blew in 
blasts of fraternal execration, and beat upon the fabric of the Federal Union, and 
that it fell not, for, resting on the rights and liberties of the people, it was 
founded upon a rock." General Hancock died February 9, 1886. 

CAPITAL A>'^D LABOR. 

Perhaps the gravest problem which confronts our country is the eternal 
strife between capital and labor. It is a problem which when solved will prove 
one of the most beneficent boons that ever blessed mankind. Disputes continu- 
ally arise between employers and employes ; sti-ikes have occurred without 
number, many of them attended by violence, the destruction of property and 
lamentable loss of life. Arbitration is the best and most sensible cure for the 
grave peril which at times has seemed to threaten the safety of our institutions, 
and when the employer and those dependent upon him for the support of them- 
selves and families meet in a friendly spirit and discuss their differences, they 
are certain to reach an amicable agreement. 

That men have the right to strike and combine against a lowering of their 
wages or for the purpose of increasing them is beyond all dispute. That they 
have the right to destroy property or prevent other men fi-om taking their 
places is contended by no intelligent person, but, so long as human nature 
remains as it is, they will do so, with the result that in almost every instance 
it is the laborers themselves who are the greatest losers and sufferers. 

One fact for which all ought to be grateful is that the murderous anarchists 
who once plotted and struck with the venom of rattlesnakes have either disap- 
peared or ceased their evil work. They are scarcely heard of in theise days, and 



454 ADMINISTRATION OF CLEVELAND. 

that it may ever remain thus is the fervent wish of every patriotic and right* 
minded citizen. 

It is inevitable that so long as the United States remains an asylum for the 
persecuted and ojipressed of all nations, it must receive many of the miscreants 
that have been compelled to flee from their own countries to escape the penalty 
of their crimes. Despite the ravings of tlie anarchists, we have good-naturedly 
let them alone, not believing they would ever dare to carry out any of the 
threats which they were so fond of making. Thus they became emboldened 
and finally ventured to put their execrable principles into practice. 

There were a good many strikes in different parts of the country in the 
early months of 1886. A number were settled by arbitration, such as the 
strike on the elevated railroads in New York City, but others were fought out 
to the bitter end. 

A strike occurred on the Missouri Pacific Railroad in the spring of 1886. 
The strikers became violent, destroyed proj^erty, and a number of lives were lost. 
The end came in May, and, as is generally the case, it was against the em- 
ployes, many of whom were unable to regain the places that had been taken by 
others. 

ANARCHISTIC OUTBREAK IX CHICAGO. 

The cry for eight hours, at the same rate of wages previously paid for ten, 
was raised in New York and Chicago in May, 1886. Here and tliere a com- 
promise of nine hours was agreed upon with a half of each Saturday for the em- 
ployes, but in other cases the employers would not yield anything. This issue 
led to the strike of 40,000 workmen in Chicago, who were chiefly lumbermen, 
brickmakers, freight-handlers, iron-workers, and men employed in factories. 
So many peoj^le were idle that business of all kinds suffered. Naturally there 
were many parades and much sjieech-making. That " an idle mind is the 
devil's workshop" was jiroven by the appearance of the communistic red flag 
in some of the parades and by the savage utterances of their speech-maker.%. 

The pork packers and brewers amicably adjusted the strikes of their men, 
but the majority of the employers refused to concede anything. Sunday, the 
2d of May, passed without incident, but the police knew the anarchists were 
jjlotting and trouble was at hand. Probably 12,000 strikers gathered the next 
day at the McCormick Reaper Works on Western Avenue, where they shattered 
the windows with stones. At the moment an attack was about to be made upon 
the buildings, a patrol w'agon dashed up with twelve policemen, who sprang to 
the ground. Drawing their revolvers they faced the mob and ordered them to 
disperse. They were answered with a volley of stones. The policemen fired 
twice over the heads of the rioters, thereby encouraging instead of intimidating 
them. Seeing the folly of throwing away their shots, the policemen now fired 



ANARCHISTIC OUTBREAK IN CHICAGO. 



455 



directly at the rioters, who answered with pistol-shots, but they did not hit any 
of the officers. 

Other patrol wagons hurried up, and the officers did not wait until they 
could leap out before opening fire. Their brave attack forced back the mob, 
and in the course of an hour the streets were cleared. The terrified workmen 
were escorted by the policemen to their homes. But for such protection mfv 
would have been killed by the 
infuriated rioters. 

Tuesday was marked by 
many affrays between the offi- 
cers and law-breakers, but no 
serious conflict occurred. Pla- 
cards were distributed during; 
the day, calling upon the 
" workingmen " to meet that 
evening at the old Haymarket 
Place, and the organ of the 
anarchists urged the men to 
arm against the police. At the 
meeting the most incendiary 
speeches were made, and the 
speakers had roused the several 
thousand listeners to the hifjli- 
est j)itch of excitement, when 
Inspector Bonfield at the head 
of a column of officers forced 
his way to the stand, ordered 
the speaker to stop, and com- 
manded the crowd to disperse. 
He was answered with jeers 
and a storm of missiles. While 
the policemen were calmly 
awaiting the orders of the in- 
spector, some one in the crowd threw a sj^uttering dynamite bomb at tlie feet 
of the officers. 

A moment later it exploded, killing seven and crippling eleven for life. 
The enraged survivors dashed into the mob, shooting and using their clubs with 
fearful effect. Within five minutes the crowd was scattered, but many lay dead 
and wounded on the ground. In the investigation that followed, it was shown 
tliat the anarchists had planned to slay hundreds of innocent people and plunder 




OLD HAYMAKKET PLAZA, CHICAGO. 

This monument shows the spot where on May 3, 1886, a dynamite bomt 
was thrown by anarchists into a group of policemen, killing seven, crip^ 
pling eleven for life, and injuring twelve others so they were unable to do 
duty for a year. 



45 G ADMINISTRATION OF CLEVELAND. 



the city. Their leaders were brought to trial, ably defended, and the most 
prominent sentenced to death. One committed suicide, a number were hanged, 
and others sentenced to long terms of imprisonment. All of the latter were 
pardoned by Governor Altgeld when he assumed office. Since that time, as 
has been stated, the anarchists have given little trouble. 

THE CHARLESTON EARTHQUAKE. 

'The year 1886 was marked by one of the most terrifying visitations that 
can come to any country. Earthquake shocks have been felt in different places 
in the United States, and the earth-tremors are so frequent in California that 
they cause little alarm, for very few have inflicted any damage to property or 
life. 

On the night of August 31st, the city of Richmond, Virginia, was thrown 
into consternation by a series of eartliquake shocks. The convicts in the peni- 
tentiary became so panic-stricken that the militia had to be called out to control 
them. The shock was felt still more violently in Columbia, South Carolina. 
The buildings swayed as if rocked in a gale, and hundreds of citizens rushed 
into the street in their night robes. The scenes were less startling in Memphis, 
Nashville, Raleigh, Chattanooga, Selma, Lynchburg, Norfolk, Mobile, St. Louis, 
Cleveland, Indianapolis, Chicago, Pittsburg, while the tremor was felt as far 
north as Albany, N. Y. 

The most fearful visitation, however, was at Cliarleston, South Carolina. 
Telegrajihic communication was cut off with the rest of the Avorld, and for hours 
the horrifying belief prevailed that the city had been entirely destroyed. Such, 
happily, was not the fact, though never in all the stormy history of Charleston 
did she pass through so terrible an experience. 

Late on the evening named, the inhabitants found themselves tossed about, 
with their houses tumbling into ruins. They ran in terror into the streets, many 
not stopping until they reached the open country, while others flung themselves 
on their knees and begged heaven to save them. 

The shocks that night were ten in number, each less violent than its pre- 
decessor. Fires started in several quarters, and twenty houses were burned be- 
fore the firemen gained control. The next morning vibrations again shook the 
city, all coming from the southeast and passing off in a northwesterly direction. 
The first warning was a deep, subterraneous rumbling, then the earth quivered 
and heaved, and in a few seconds the terrific wave had gone by. When night 
came again, 50,000 people — men, women, and children — were in the streets, none 
daring to enter their houses. They fled to the open squares to escape being 
crushed by the falling buildings. Many believed the day of judgment had come 
and the negroes were frenzied with terror. 



CONQUEST OF THE APACHES. 457 

Singular effects of the earthquake showed themselves. In some places, 
the covers were hurled from the wells and were followed by geysers of mud and 
water. Some wells were entirely emptied, but they soon refilled. The shocks 
continued at varying intervals for several weeks, though none was as violent as 
at first. In Charleston fully a hundred people were killed and two-thirds of the 
city required rebuilding. While damage was done at other points, none equaled 
that at Charleston. 

The country was quick to respond to the needs of the smitten city. Con- 
tributions were forwarded from every point as freely as when Chicago was devas- 
tated by fire. Tents, provisions, and many thousands of dollars were sent thither. 
Even Queen Victoria telegraphed her sympathy to President Cleveland. One 
of the mitigations of such scourges is that they seem to draw humanity closer 
into one general brotherhood. 

CONQUEST OF THE APACHES. 

An important work accomplished during the first administration of Cleve- 
land was the conquest and subjection of the Apaches of the Southwest. These 
Indians are the most terrible red men that ever lived anywhere. They are in- 
credibly tough of frame, as merciless as tigers, and capable of undergoing hard- 
ships and jirivations before which any other people would succumb. They will 
travel for days without a mouthful of food, will go for hour after hour through 
a climate that is like that of Sahara without a drop of moisture, will climb pre- 
cipitous mountains as readily as a slight declivity, will lope across the burning 
deserts all day without fatigue, or, if riding one of their wiry ponies, will kill 
and eat a portion of them when hunger must be attended to, and then continue 
their journey on foot. 

If a party of Apache raiders are hard pressed by cavalry, they will break 
up and continue their flight singly, meeting at some rendezvous many miles 
away, after the discouraged troopers have abandoned pursuit. They seem as 
impervious to the fiery heat of Arizona and New Mexico as salamanders. To- 
night they may burn a ranchman's home, massacre him and all his family, and 
to-morrow morning will repeat the crime fifty miles distant. 

No men could have displayed more bravery and endurance in running 
down the Apaches than the United States cavalry. The metal-work of their 
weapons grew so hot that it would blister the bare hands, and for days the 
thermometer marked one hundred and twenty degrees. 

Captain Bourke, who understands these frightful red men thoroughly, gives 
the following description of the Apache : 

" Physically, he is perfect; he might be a trifle taller for artistic effect, but 
his apparent ' squattiness ' is due more to great girth of chest than to diminutive 



458 ADMINISTRATION OF CLEVELAND. 

stature. His muscles are hard as bone, and I have seen one light a match on 
the sole of his foot. When Crook first took the Apache in hand, he had few 
wants and cared for no luxuries. War was his business, his life, and victory 
his dream. To attack a Mexican camp or isolated village, and run off a herd 
of cattle, mules, or sheep, he would gladly travel hundreds of miles, incurring 
every risk and displaying a courage which would have been extolled in a 
historical novel as having happened in a raid by Highlanders upon Scotchmen; 
but when it was your stock, or your friend's stock, it became quite a different 
matter. He wore no clothing whatever save a narrow piece of calico or buck- 
skin about his loins, a lielmet also of buckskin, plentifully crested with the 
plumage of the wild turkey and eagle, and long-legged moccasins, held to the 
waist by a string, and turned up at the toes in a shield which protected hira 
from stones and the 'cholla' cactus. If he felt thirsty, he drank from the 
nearest brook ; if there was no brook near by he went without, and, putting a 
stone or a twig in his mouth to induce a flow of saliva, journeyed on. When he 
desired to communicate with friends at home, or to put himself in correspondence 
with persons whose co-operation had been promised, he rubbed two sticks 
together, and dense signal smoke rolled to the zenith, and was answered from 
peaks twenty and thirty miles away. By nightfall, his bivouac was pitched at 
a distance from water, generally on the flank of a rocky mountain, along which 
no trail would be left, and ujj which no force of cavalry could hojje to ascend 
without making noise enough to wake the dead." 

This graphic picture of the dusky scourge of the Southwest will exjilain 
the dread in which he wa.s held by all who were compelled to live away from 
the towns. When practicable, the ranchmen combined against the Apaches, 
but, from the necessities of the case, they were powerless to extirpate the pests. 
Unsuccessful attempts were made by the military forces, but nothing definite 
was accomplished until General George Crook took the work in hand. 

Crook was an old Indian campaigner who thoroughly understood the nature 
of the difficult task before him. His pre2:)arations being completed, he ordered his 
different columns to converge, December 9, 1872, on Tonto Basin, which was 
one of the principal strongholds of the Apaches in Arizona. The section is 
inclosed by the MogoUen, the Mazatzal, and the Sierra Ancha Mountains, and 
the timbered region is so elevated that during the winter months it is covered 
with snow. Crook himself took station at Camj) Grant, one of the most unat- 
tractive posts in the country. 

This officer having started on his campaign pushed it with untiring energy. 
He had selected the best Indian fighters to be found anywhere, and they pursued 
and rounded up the bucks with amazing skill and persistency. As soon as they 
corralled a party of hostiles, they impressed the best trailers and used them in 



CONQUEST OF THE APACHES. 



459 



running down the others. The Indians were allowed no time to rest. When 
they had fled many miles, and supposed their pursuers were left far out of sight, 
as had hitherto been the case, they discovered them at their heels. Plunging 
into their fastnesses in the mountains did not avail, for the white and the red 
trailers could follow and did follow them wherever they took refuge. 

The pursuing detachments frequently crossed one another's trails, often 
met and kept within supporting distance. The danger which threatened the 
Apaches was as present in the 
darkness as when the sun was 
shining. One of the seemingly 
inaccessible strongholds was 
reached by the troopers pushing 
the pursuit all through the night. 
As a proof of the skill of the 
Apache trailers, it may be said 
they were often guided in the 
gloom by the feeling of their feet, 
which told them when they were 
on the trail of the enemy. Cap- 
tain Bourke, whom we have 
quoted, was in command of a 
detachment of the best Indian 
trailers -and sharpshooters. He 
thus describes the scene and in- 
cidents, when, after hours of 
stealthy pursuit through the rough 
region, they came upon the hostiles, 
who believed themselves beyond 
reach of the most persistent ene- 
mies of any race: 

" Lieutenant William J. Ross, 
of the Twenty-first Infantry, was 
assigned to lead the first detachment, which contained the best shots from among 
the soldiers, packers, and scouts. The second detachment came under my own 
orders. Our pioneer party slipped down the face of the j^recipice without acci- 
dent, following a trail from which an incautious step would have caused them 
to be dashed to pieces ; after a couple of hundred yards this brought them face 
to face with the cave, and not two hundred feet from it. In front of the cave 
vras the party of raiders, just returned from their successful trip of killing and 
robbing in the settlement near Florence on the Gila River. They were dancing 




GENERAL CROOK'S APACHE GUIDE. 



460 ADMINISTRATION OF CLEVELAND. 

to keep themselves warm and to express their joy over their safe return. Half 
a dozen or more of the squaws had arisen from their slumbers and were bending 
over a fire and hurriedly preparing refreshments for their victorious kinsmen. 
The fitful gleam of the glowing flame gave i Macbethian tinge to the weird 
scene, and brought into bold relief the grim outlines of the cliffs, between whose 
steep walls, hundreds of feet below, growled the rushing current of the swift 
Salado. 

" The Indians, men and women, were in higli good humor, and why should 
they not be ? Sheltered in the bosom of these grim precipices, only the eagle^ 
the hawk, the turkey buzzard, or the mountain sheep could venture to intrude 
upon them. But hark ! What is that noise ? Can it be the breeze of morning 
which sounds ' click, click ? ' You will know in one second more, poor, deluded, 
red-skinned wretches, when the ' bang ! boom!' of rifles and carbines, reverbera- 
ting like the roar of a cannon, from peak to peak, shall lay six of your number 
dead in the dust. 

" The cold, gray dawn of that chill December morning was sending its first 
rays above the horizon and looking down upon one of the worst bands of 
Apaches in Arizona, caught like wolves in a trap. They rejected with scorn 
our summons to surrender, and defiantly shrieked that not one of our party 
should escape from the canon. We heard their death-song chanted, and then 
out of the cave and over the great pile of rocks, which protected the entrance 
like a parapet, swarmed the warriors. But we outnumbered them three to one, 
and poured in lead by the bucketful. The bullets, striking the mouth and roof 
of the cave, glanced among- the savages in rear of the parapet, and wounded 
some of the women and children, whose wails filled the air. 

" During the heaviest part of the firing, a little boy not more than four years 
old, absolutely naked, ran out at the side of the parapet and stood dumfounded 
between the two fires. Nantaje, without a moment's pause, rushed forward, 
grasped the trembling infant by the arm, and escaped unhurt with him, inside 
our lines. A bullet, probably deflected from the rocks, had struck the boy on 
top of his head and plowed around to the back of his neck, leaving a welt an 
eighth of an inch thick, but not injuring him seriously. Our men susjoended 
their firing to cheer Nantaje and welcome the new arrival ; such is the incon- 
sistency of human nature. 

" Again the Apaches were summoned to surrender, or, if they would not 
do that, to let such of their women and children as so desired pass out between 
the lines ; again they yelled their refusal. Their end had come. The detach- 
ment led by Major Brown at the top of the precipice, to protect our retreat in 
case of necessity, had worked its way over to a high shelf of rock overlooking 
the enemy beneath, and began to tumble down great bowlders, which speedily 



I 



A GREAT TRANSFORMATION. 



40 1 



crushed the greater number of the Apaches. The Indians on the San Carlos 
reservation still mourn periodically for the seventy-six of their relatives who 
yielded up the ghost that morning. Every warrior died at his post. The 
women and children had hidden themselves in the inner recesses of the cave, 
which was of no great dejjth, and were captured and taken to Camp McDowell. 
A number of them had been struck by glancing bullets or fragments of falling 
rock. As soon as our pack trains could be brought up, we mounted the captives 
on our horses and mules and started for the nearest military station, the one 
just named, over fifty miles away." 

This was one of the most decisive blows received by the hostiles. No more 
murdei-ous band had ever desolated the ranches of Southern Arizona. It had 
been virtually wiped out by the troopers, 
who, complete as was their work, lost only 
a single man. 

A GREAT TRANSFORMATION. 

This achievement may illustrate the 
manner in which the American troopers 
did their work. A few days later a blow 
almost as destructive was delivered at 
Turret Butte, and within a month a hun- 
dred and ten Apaches in the Superstition 
Mountains surrendered to INIajor Brown 
and accompanied liim to Camp Grant. 
The Indians undei'stood the character of 
the man who was pressing them so re- 
morselessly. They offered to surrender 
to General Crook, who told them that, if they would stop killing people and live 
peaceful lives, he would teach them to work, find a market for their products, 
and prove himself the truest friend they could have. 

They accepted the offer, for they knew Crook could be trusted. Strange 
as it may appear, he had all the Apaches within a month at work digging 
ditches, cutting hay and wood, planting vegetables, and as peaceful and 
contented as so many farmers in the interior of one of our own States. This 
transformation included all the Apaches in Arizona, excepting the Chiricahuas, 
who were not within the jurisdiction of Crook. 

The terrible scourge that had so long desolated the Southwest was gone, and 
all would have been well but for the vicious "Indian Ring" in Washington, or, 
as it was more popularly known, the "Tucson King," who secured legislation by 
which the 6,000 Apaches were ordered to leave the reservation and go to that 




AN INDIAN •WARKIOR. 



462 ADMINISTRATION OF CLEVELAND. 

of San Carlos, where the soil is arid, the water brackish, and the flies make life 
intolerable. As was inevitable, the Indians were exasperated and revolted. Tliey 
preferred to be shot down while resenting the injustice than to submit quietly 
to it. Again tlie reign of terror opened, and the blood of hundreds of innocent 
people i^aid for the villainy of the rapacious miscreants who were beyond 
reach. 

GERONIMO, THE FAMOUS APACHE CHIEF. 

The most famous chief of the Warm Spring Apaches was Geronimo. 
Another hardly less prominent was his cousin Chato, who joined the whites in 
their attemjits to run down Geronimo. They professed to hate each other, but 
there is ground for believing the two were secret allies, and kept up continual 
comnumication by which Geronimo was able to avoid his pursuers and continue 
his fearful career. 

General Crook took the saddle again, when Geronimo escaped from Fort 
Apache in May, 1885, with a band of more than a hundred warriors, women, 
and children. They traveled one hundred and twenty miles before making 
their first camp. Try as they might, the cavalry could not get within gunshot, 
and, though the chase was pressed for hundreds of miles, the fugitives placed 
themselves beyond reach for a time in the Sierra Madre Mountains. 

But Crook never let up, and finally corralled Geronimo. He held him just 
one night, when he escaped. The wily leader stole back to camp the next night, 
carried off his wife, and was beyond reach before pursuit could be made. 

There was an agreement between the United States and Mexico by which 
the troops of the former were allowed to follow any marauding Indians beyond 
the Rio Grande when they were seeking escape by entering Mexico. General 
H. W. Lawton (who won fame in Cuba during our late war with Spain and 
still more in the Philippines) took the field with the Fourth Cavalry, May 5j 
1885. Lawton is a giant in stature and strength, with more endurance than 
an Indian, absolutely fearless, and he was resolute to run down the Apaches, 
even if compelled to chase them to the city of Mexico. 

And he did it. Geronimo was followed with such untiring persistency* 
losing a number of his bucks in the attacks made on him, that in desperation 
he crossed the Rio Grande and headed again for the Sierra Madre. A hot chase 
of two hundred miles brought the Apaches to bay, and a brisk fight took place 
within the confines of Mexico. The Indians fled again, and Lawton kept after 
them. The pursuit took the troopers 300 miles south of the boundary line, 
the trail winding in and out of the mountains and cafions of Sonora, repeatedly 
crossing and doubling upon itself, but all the time drawing nearer the dusky 
scourges, who at last were so worn out and exhausted that when summoned to 
surrender they did so. 



in±j TWJLJSTl THIRD PRESIDENT. 



46;i 



Geronimo, one of the worst of all the Apaches, was once more a prisoner 
pfith his band. But he had been a prisoner before, only to escape and renew 
his outrages. So long as he was anywhere in the Southwest, the ranchmen felt 
unsafe. Accordingly, he ar!>d his leading chiefs were sent to Fort Pickens, 
Florida, the others being forwarded to Fort Marion, St. Augustine. Their 
health after a time was affected, and they were removed to Mount Vernon, 
Alabama. The prisoners, including the women and children, number about 
400. A school was opened, whither the boys and girls were sent to receive 
instruction, and some of the brightest pupils in the well-known Indian School 
at Carlisle were the boys and girls 
whose fathers were merciless raiders 
in Arizona only a few years ago, 
and who are now quiet, peaceful, con- 
tented, and "good Indians." The 
Apaches have been thoroughly con- 
quered, and the ranchmen and their 
families have not the shadow of a 
fear that the terror that once shad- 
owed their thresholds can ever return. 




PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1888. 

Although President Cleveland 
offended many of his party by his 
devotion to the policy of civil ser- 
vice reform, he was renominated in 
1888, while the nominee of the Re- 
publicans was Benjamin Harrison. 
Other tickets were placed in the 
field, and the November election 
resulted as follows : Grover Cleve- 
land and Allen G. Thurman, Demo- 
crats, 168 electoral votes ; Benjamin Harrison and Levi P. Morton, Republicans, 
233 ; Clinton B. Fisk and John A. Brooks, Prohibition, received 249,907 pop- 
ular votes ; Alson J. Streeter and C. E. Cunningham, United Labor, 148,105 ; 
James ^L. Curtis and James R. Greer, American, 1,591. 



BJ3NJAMIN HAKKISOW. 

(1833-1901.) One term, 1S89-1894. 



THE TWENTY-THIED PRESIDENT. 

Benjamin Harrison was born at North Bend, Ohio, August 20, 1833. His 
father was a farmer, and his father was General William Henry Harrison, gov- 
f^rnor of the Northwest Territory, and afterward President of the United StateSj 



464 ADMINISTRATIOM OF HARRISON. 

and the first to die in oflfice. His father was Benjamin Harrison, one of the 
signers of the Declaration of Independence. Thus the twenty-third President 
possesses illustrious lineage. 

Benjamin Harrison entered Miami University when a boy, and was grad- 
uated before the age of twenty. He studied law, and ujjon his admission to the 
bar settled in Indianapolis, which has since been his home. He volunteered 
early in the war, and won the praise of Sheridan and other leaders for his gal- 
lantry and bravery. He was elected to the United States Senate in 1881, and 
his ability placed him among the foremost leaders in that distinguished body. 
As a debater and oft-hand speaker, he probably had no superior, while his ability 
as a lawyer long ago placed him in the very front rank of his profession. 

THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER. 

The Conemaugh Valley, in the eastern part of Pennsylvania, is about twenty 
miles in length. The city of Johnstown lies thirty-nine miles west-southwest of 
Altoona and seventy-eight miles east-by-south of Pittsburg. It is the seat of the 
Cambria Iron Works, which give employment to fully 6,000 men, and is one 
of the leading industrial establishments of the country. Conemaugh Lake is at 
the head of the winding valley, eighteen miles away, and was the largest reser- 
voir of water in the world. It was a mile and a half wide at its broadest part, 
and two miles and a half long. Most of the lake was a hundred feet deep. 
The dam was a fifth of a mile wide, ninety feet thick at its base, and one hun- 
dred and ten feet high. The mass of water thus held in restraint was incon- 
ceivable. 

The peojjle living in the valley below had often reflected upon the appalling 
consequences if this dam should give way. Few persons comprehend the mighty 
strength of water, whose pressure depends mainly upon its depth. A tiny stream, 
no thicker than a pipe-stem, cai* penetrate deeply enough into a mountain to 
split it apart, and, should the reservoir ever burst its bounds, it would spread 
death and desolation over miles of country below. 

There had been several alarms, but the engineers sent to make an examina- 
tion of the dam always reported it safe, and the peojjle, like those who live at 
the base of a volcano, came to believe that all the danger existed in their 
imagination. 

On the 31st of May, 1889, the dam suddenly gave way, sliding from its 
base, like an oiled piece of machinery, and the vast mass of water shot forward 
at the speed of more than two miles a minute. Seven minutes after the bursting 
of the dam, the head of the resistless flood was eighteen miles down the valley. 
A man on horseback had started, at a dead-run, some minutes before the catas- 
trophe, shouting a warning to the inhabitants, some of whom, by instantly 



A FURIOUS TORRENT. 



465 



taking to flight up the mountain side, were able to save themselves, but the 
majority waited too long. 

A FURIOUS TORRENT. 

Imagination cannot picture the awful power of this prodigious torrent. 
Trees were uptorn or flattened to tlie earth, houses, locomotives, and massive 
machinery were tumbled over and over and bobbed about like so many corks, 
and the flood struck Johnstown with the fury of a cyclone, sweeping everything 
before it, as if it were so much chaff". Tearing through the city and carrying 
with it thousands of tons of wreckage of 
every description, it plunged down the 
valley till it reached the railroad bridge 
below Johnstown. There, for the fii-st 
time, it encountered an obstruction which 
it could not overcome. The structure 
sto&d as immovable as a solid mountain, 
and the furious torrent piled up the de- 
bris for a mile in width and many feet in 
depth. In this mass were engines, houses, 
trees, furniture, household utensils, iron in 
all forms, while, winding in and out, were 
hundreds of miles of barbed wire, which 
knit the wreckage together. In many of 
the dwellings people were imprisoned, and 
before a step could be taken to relieve 
them fire broke out and scores were burned 
to death. 

How many people lost their lives in 
the Johnstown flood will never be known. 
The remains of bodies were found for 
months and even years afterward. The 
official list, when made up, was 2,280, of which 741 bodies were unidentified; 
but there is little doubt that the loss was fully twice the number given. 
Nothing of the kind has ever before occurred in the history of our country, 
and it is to be hoped that such a disaster will never be repeated. 

Again the calamity awoke an instant symjjathetic response. Provisions, 
tents, and money were sent to the sufferers from all j^arts of the Union, and 
nothing that could relieve them was neglected. Johnstown was soon rebuilt, 
and to-day there are no signs of the fearful visitation it received, only a compara- 
tively short time since. On November 14, 1892, at the payment of the annu- 
ity provided for the orphans of Johnstown, the sum of $20,325 was distributed. 




INDIAN MOTHER AND INFANT. 



466 ADMINISTRATION OF HARRISON. 

We came very uear to having a war with Chili iu the latter part of 1891. 
On the 16th of October of that year, some forty men, attached to the American 
warship BaUimore, lying in the harbor of Valparaiso, obtained leave to go 
ashore. Sailors at such times are as frolicksome as so many boys let out for a 
vacation, and it cannot be claimed that these Jackies were models of order and 
quiet behavior. They were in uniform and without weapons. 

They had been in the city only a short time, when one of them became 
involved in a wrangle with a Chilian. His companions went to his assistance 
whereupon a native mob quickly gathered and set ui)on them. The Chilians 
detest Americans, and, seeing a chance to vent their feelings, they did so with 
vindictive fury. They far outnumbered the sailors, and besides nearly every 
one of them was armed. The boatswain's mate of the Baltimore, Riggin by 
name, was killed and several seriously wounded, one of whom afterward died 
from his injuries. Thirty-five of the Americans were arrested and thrown into 
prison, but as they could not be held upon any criminal charge they were 
released. 

The captain of the BaUimore was the present Rear-Admii-al Schley, who 
rescued the Greely party of Arctic explorers, and gave so good an account of 
himself, while in command of the Brooklyn, during the desti'uction of Cervera's 
fleet off Santiago, July 3, 1898. When our government learned of the affair, 
it directed Captain Schley to make a full investigation. He did so, and his 
report left no doubt that the Chilians had committed a gross outrage against 
our flag. 

The next act of our government was to demand an apology from Chili and 
the payment of an indemnity to the sufferers and to the families of those who 
had been killed by the attack of the mob. Chili is a fiery nation, and her 
reply was so insolent that preparations were set on foot to bi-ing her to terms 
by force of arms. At the moment, as may be said, when war impended, she 
sent an apology and forwarded a satisfactory indemnity, whereupon the flurry 
subsided. 

A GREAT INDIAN WAR THREATENED IN 1890-1891. 

A Still greater danger threatened the country in the winter of 1890-1891, 
when we were menaced by the most formidable Indian uprising that has ever 
occurred iu the history of our country. 

Indian wars hitherto had been confined to certain localities, where, by the 
prompt concentration of troops, they were speedily subdued ; but in the instance 
named the combination was among the leading and most warlike tribes, who 
roamed over thousands of square miles of the Northwest. A fiict not generally 
suspected is that the red men of this country are as numerous to-day as they 
ever were. While certain tribes have disappeared, others have increased in 



e 



I 



SITTING BULL. 407 

number, with the result that the sentimental fancy that at some time in the 
future the red man will disa25pear from the continent has no basis in fact. The 
probability is that they will increase, though not so raj)idly as their Caucasian 
brethren. 

The strongest tribe in the Northwest is the Sioux. It was they who per- 
petrated the massacres in Minnesota in 1862. If necessary they could place 
5,000 warriors in the field, with every man a brave and skillful fighter in his 
way. It was they, too, who overwhelmed Custer and his command on the Little 
Big Horn in June, 1876. When it is added that the squaws are as vicious 
fighters as their husbands, it will be understood what a war with them means, 
especially since they have the help of neighboring tribes. 

For a long time there have been two classes of Indians. The progressives 
favor civilization, send their children to Carlisle and other schools, engage in 
f^u-ming, and, in short, are fully civilized. They remain on their reservation 
and give the government no trouble. Ojiposed to them are the barbarians, or 
untamable red men, who refuse to acce23t civilization, hate the whites, and are 
ready to go to war on a slight ])retext, even though they know there can be but 
one result, which is their own defeat. 

The Indians are among the most superstitious people in the world. When, 
therefore, a number of warriors appeared among them, dressed in white shirts, 
engaging in furious "ghost dances," and declaring that the Messiah was about 
to revisit the earth, drive out the white men, and restore the hunting grounds 
to the faithful Indians, the craze sjM-ead and the fanatical promises of the ghost 
dancers were eagerly accejDted by thousands of I'ed men. 

SITTING BULL. 

The most dangerous Sioux Indian was the medicine man known as Sitting 
Bull, already referred to in our account of the Custer massacre. He always 
felt bitter against the whites, and had caused them a good deal of trouble. He 
saw in the ghost dance the opportunity for which he longed, and he began 
urging his people to unite against their hereditary enemies, as he regarded them. 

It soon became apparent that, unless he was restrained, he would cause the 
worst kind of trouble, and it was determined to arrest him. The most effective 
officers employed against the men are the Indian police in the service of the 
United States government. These people did not like Sitting Bull, and hoped 
they would have trouble in arresting him, since it would give the pretext they 
wanted for shooting him. 

Sitting Bull's camp was forty miles northwest of Fort Yates, North 
Dakota, whither the Indian police rode on the morning of December 15, 1890, 
with the United States cavalry lingering some distance in the rear. The taunts 



468 



ADMINISTRATION OF HARRISON. 



of Sitting Bull's boy Crowfoot caused him to offer resistance, and in a twinkling 
both parties began shooting. Sitting Bull, his son, and six warriors were killed, 
while four of the Indian police lost their lives, among them the one who had 
fired the fatal shot at the medicine man. 

The remaining members of Sitting Bull's command fled to the " Bad 
Lands " of Dakota, but a number were persuaded to return to Pine Ridge 
Agency. There were so many, however, who refused to come in that the peril 
assumed the gravest character. The only way to bring about a real peace was 
to compel the disarming of the Indians, for so long as they had weapons in their 
hands they were tempted to make use of them. 

It was the time for coolness, tact, and discretion, and the American officers 
displayed it to a commendable degree. They carefully avoided giving the 

Indians cause for of- 
fense, while insisting 
at the same time upon 
their being disarmed. 
On December 
28th, a band of mal- 
contents were located 
near Wounded Knee 
Creek, by the Seventh 
Cavalry, who had 
^^ been hunting several days for 
"~ them. They were sullen, but, 

^ when ordered to surrender their weapons, made 

a pretense of doing so. Emerging from their tepees, how- 
ever, they produced onlj^ a few worthless weapons. Being 
sharply ordered to bring the remainder, they suddenly wheeled and began fir- 
ing upon the soldiers. In an instant, a fierce fight was in progress, with the 
combatants standing almost within arm's reach of one another. 




JTrEDIBI 



lcHfM|^^,TO«- 

INDIAN AGENCY. 



SQUAWS AS VICIOUS AS WILDCATS. 

Twenty-eight soldiers were killed and thii'ty wounded, while fully as many 
of the Indians were shot down. In the fighting, the squaws were as vicious as 
wildcats, and fought with as much eifectiveness as the warriors. A wounded 
officer was beaten to death by several of them before he could be rescued. 
Finally, the Indians fled and joined the malcontents, already assembled in the 
Bad Lands. 

This affiiir made the outlook still darker. The Seventh Cavalry had just 
reached camp on the morning of December 80th, when a courier dashed up to 



I 



THE ALARMING CLOUD DISSOLVED. 469 

Pine Kidge, with word that the Catholic Mission building was on fire and the 
Indians were killing the teachers and pupils. The wearied troopers galloped 
hurriedly thither, but found the burning building was the day school, a mile 
nearer Pine Ridge. A strong force of Indians were gathered beyond, and the 
Seventh attacked them. The Sioux were so numerous that the cavalry were in 
great danger of being surrounded, when a vigorous attack by the Ninth Cavalry 
(colored) on the rear of the Indians scattered them. 

Warriors continued to slip away from the agency and join the hostiles. 
Their signal fires were seen burning at night, and recruits came all the way 
from British America to helj? them. It was remarked at one time that the only 
friendly Indians were the police, a few Cheyennes, and the scouts, including a 
few Sioux chiefs, among whom American Horse was the most conspicuous. He 
never wavered in his loyalty to the whites, and boldly combated in argument 
his enemies, at the risk of being killed at any moment by his infuriated coun- 
trymen. 

THE ALAKMING CLOUD DISSOLVED. 

There were a number of skirmishes and considerable fighting, but General 
Miles, who assumed charge of all the military movements, displayed admirable 
tact. When the Sioux began slowly coming toward the agency, it was under 
orders from him that not a gun should be fired nor a demonstration made except 
to repel an attack or to check a break on the part of the Indians. This course 
was followed, the troopers keeping at a goodly distance behind the hostiles, who 
seemed more than once on the point of wheeling about and assailing them, 
despite their promises to come into the agency and surrender their arms. 

The Sioux, however, kept their pledge, and, on the 15th of January, 1891, 
the immense cavalcade entered the agency. Everyone was amazed at the 
strength displayed by the Indians, which was far greater than supposed. In 
the 23rocession were 732 lodges, and careful estimates made the whole number 
11,000, of whom 3,000 were warriors. Had these red men broken loose and 
started upon the war trail, the consequences would have been frightful. 

While the weapons turned in by the Indians were only a few in number 
and of poor quality, General Miles was satisfied the trouble was over and issued 
a congratulatory address to those under his command. His opinion of the 
situation proved correct, and the alarming war cloud that had hung over the 
Northwest melted and dissolved. While there have been slight troubles in 
difierent parts of the country since, none assumed a serious character, and it is 
believed impossible that ever again the peril of 1890-91 can threaten the 
country. 

ADMISSION OF NEW STATES. 

Several States were admitted to the Union during Harrison's administration. 



ir 



470 ADMINISTRATION OF HARRISON. 

The first were North and South Dakota, which became States in November, \ 
1889. The Dakotas originally formed part of the Louisiana purchase. The 
capital was first established at Yankton in March, 1862, but was removed to 
Bismarck in 1883. The two States separated in 1889. 

In November of the latter year Montana was admitted, and in July follow- 
ing Idaho and Wyoming. Montana was a part of Idaho Territory until May, 
1864, when it was organized as a separate Territory. Idaho itself was a j^art 
of Oregon Territory until 1863, and, when first formed, was made up of portions 
of Oregon, Washington, Utah, and Nebraska. The boundaries were changed 
in 1864 and a part added to Montana. Wyoming gained its name from the 
settlers who went thither from Wyoming Valley, Pennsylvania. It first 
became a Territory in 1863. 

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1892. 

The Kepublicans renominated President Harrison in 1892, with Whitelaw 
Reid the candidate for Vice-President, while the Democrats put forward ex- 
President Cleveland and Adlai E. Stevenson. The result of the election was aa 
follows : 

Grover Cleveland and Adlai E. Stevenson Democrats, 277 electoral votes ; 
Benjamin Harrison and Whitelaw Reid, Republicans, 144. Of the popular 
vote, James B. AVeaver and James G. Field, People's Party, received 1,041,028 
votes; John Bidwell and James B. Cranfil, Prohibition, 264,133; and Simon 
Wing and Charles M. Matchett, Social Labor, 21,164 votes. 




CHAPTER XXIL 

A.DMINISTRATION OF CLEVELAND (SEX^OND), 

1893-1897 

Bepeal of the Purchase Clause of the Sherman Bill— The World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago— The 
Hawaiian Imbroglio — The Great Railroad Strike of 1894 — Coxey's Commo'iweal Army — Admission 
of Utah — Harnessing of Niagara — Dispute with England Over Venezuela's Boundary — Presidential 
Election of 1896. 



EEPEAL OF THE PURCHASE CLAUSE OP THE SHEEMAIT BILL. 

Grover Cleveland was the first President of the United States who had 
an interval between his two terras. 
His inauguration was succeeded by 
a financial stringency, which ap- 
peared in the summer and autumn 
of 1893. There seemed to be a 
weakening of general confidence iu 
all parts of the country, and much 
Buffering followed, especially in the 
large cities, greatly relieved, however, 
by the well-ordered system of char- 
ity. Many people thought that one 
cause of the trouble was the Sher- 
man Bill, which provided for a 
large monthly coinage of silver. 
Congress was convened in extraor- 
dinary session August 7th by the 
President, who recommended that 
body to repeal the purchase clause 
of the Sherman act. Such a repeal 
was promptly passed by the House, 
but met with strong opposition in 
the Senate. There is less curb to 
debate in that branch of Congress, 
and the senators from the silver States, like Colorado, Idaho and Nevada, wiiere 
the mining of silver is one of the most important industries, did what they cnuld 

(471) 




HENKY MOOBE TELLER. 

Senator fiom Colorado. The most prominent among the 
Senators." 



' Silver 



472 ADMINISTRATION OF CLEVELAND. 

to delay legislation. Some of tlie speeches were spun out for days, with no other 
purpose than to discourage the friends of the measure by delaying legislation. 
Finally, however, a vote was reached October 30th, when the bill passed and 
was immediately signed by the President. 

THE world's COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION. 

The most notable event of Cleveland's second administration was the 
World's Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago. Properly the four hundredth 
anniversary of the discovery of America should have taken place in 1892, but 
the preparations were on so grand a scale that they could not be completed in 
time. 

The part of the government in this memorable celebration was opened by 




U.S. AIan op War 

•BuiLt- fOR- e^hiBij- AT- W0HLD5-FA|R 



a striking naval parade or review of the leading war-ships of the world. They 
assembled at Hampton Roads, Virginia, coming from points of the globe thou- 
sands of miles apart. Steaming northward to New York, the review took place 
April 27, 1893. In addition to the thirty-five war-ships, there were the three 
Columbian caravels sent by Spain and presented to the United States. When 
ranged in two lines on the Hudson, these ships extended for three miles, and 
represented, besides our own country. Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia, 
Italy, Sixain, Brazil, Holland, and Argentina. The steel-clad yacht Dolphin 
steamed between these two lines, bearing President Cleveland and his cabinet, 
while each ship as she came opposite thundered her salute. No conqueror of 
ancient or modern times ever received so magnificent a tribute. 

Chicago, having won the prize of the location of the World's Fair, selected 



OPENING OF THE GROUNDS AND BUILDINGS. 



473 



the site on the 2d of July, 1890. This covered nearly 700 acres of beautiful 
laid-out grounds and parks, extending from the point nearest the city, two and 
a half miles, to the southern extremity of Jackson Park. The site selected by 
the directors was the section known as Jackson Park and the Midway Plaisance. 
The park has a frontage of one and a half miles on Lake Michigan and contains 
600 acres, while the Midway Plaisance, connecting Jackson and Washington 
Parks, six hundred feet wide and a mile in leiigtli, afi'orded eighty-five acres 
more. 

All the States in the Union entered heartily into the scheme, their appro- 
priations amounting to |6,000,000, and every country of importance in the 




world made generous appropriations for exhibit)^. 



were dedicated October 21, 1892, the four hundredth anniversary of the dis- 
covery of America, with appropriate ceremonies by Vice-President Morton and 
other distinguished citizens. The Exposition was oi^ened to the public on May 
1, 1893, remaining open until November 1. 

Tlie Exposition was, in respect to space occupied, number and dimensions 
of buildings, and beauty and artistic adornment of the grounds, superior to any 
previously held. Fronting as it ditl on Lake Michigan, it was magnificently 
situated, while the waters of the lake, brought into the grounds, were converted 
into beautiful minor lakes and waterways, yielding superb effects. The build- 
in-i's, though temporary structures, were strikingly effective in architecture. 



474 



ADMTNISTRATION OF CLEVELAND. 



their marble like hue winning for the exhibition the name of the " Wliite 
City." They included ten main buildings, devoted to different branches of art 
and industry, ■with numerous subordinate structures, for State and foreign dis- 
play, some of the State buildings and exhibits being large and imposing. 

Chief in size among them was the Manufactures and Liberal Arts Build- 
ing, of such enormous dimensions as to cover more than thirty acres of ground 
space. Its roof structure surpassed in extent any ever before made, and in its 
central hall, a single room without a supporting column, nearly as many per- 
sons could have been comfortably seated as in the Roman Coliseum, with its 
eighty thousand seats. 

One of the most attractive series of exhibits was that in the Electricity 
Building. In the interval since the Centennial Exposition of 1876 the practi- 
cal use of electric- 
ity in lighting and 
for other purposes 
had enormously de- 
veloped, and this 
was the first 02")]ior- 
tunity to make an 
efiective display of 
its marvellous prog- 
ress. For this I'ea- 
son the electrical 
display, including 
its swiftly revolv- 
ing dynamos, its 

brilliant lights, and its other features of modern magic, attracted hosts of inter- 
ested and delighted visitors. 

Machinery Hall also proved very attractive, with its multitude of imple- 
ments and machines of almost every imaginable description, while Agricultural 
Hall had a seemingly endless variety of products of the soil and appai-atus for 
its cultivation. In the Transportation Building were shown nearly everythino^ 
that one could conceive possible as an agency of transport, from the liaby car- 
riage to the most ponderous locomotive. The art of shipbuilding was fullv 
represented, its most interesting exhibit being an e.xact model of the "Santa 
Maria," the principal ship of Columbus, which was wrecked in the West Indies 
during his first voyage of discovery. 

The United States Government Building was filled with objects of interest, 
its exhibits showing the intricate workings of the several departments and his- 
toric relics of the greatest interest. Among these was an exact copy of the 




ADMINISTRATION OF CLEVELAND. 



475 







Declaration of Independence (the original being too precious to risk), Wash- 
ington's commission as commander of the Continental army, a page from the 
Plymouth record of 1620, and one from the Salem witchcraft ti-ial records of 
1692, with numerous other interesting relics of colonial days and worthies. 
Still more attractive to most of the visitors was the famous Liberty Bell, sent 
from the historic Independence Hall of Philadelphia. It was exhibited in the 
Pennsylvania State Building, and cai'efully guarded from the curious visitors 
by a stalwart cohort of the Quaker City police force. 

The Art Gallery faced on a broad lagoon, and, with its handsomely colon- 
naded front, was in itself an attractive work of art. Interiorly, it was filled to 
repletion with paintings by the world's modern masters, and with other art 
objects in profusion. It was the only one of the buildings that was substan- 
tially constructed, 
and one of the few 
that escaped the fire 
that afterwards 
swept the grounds, 
and it is still pre- 
served as the Field 
Columbian Muse- 
um, with a collec- 
tion of art objects 
of wide scojDe and 
great educational 
value. It is the 
only existing me- 
morial of the great event. 

We shall speak of only one other feature of the World's Columbian Expo- 
sition — to most of the visitors the best of them all — that known as the Midway 
Plaisance. In this broad avenue the world was shown at play in a great variety 
of amusing scenes and shows. Among these were Austrian, Algerian, Lapland, 
Chinese, Dahomey and other village I'eproductions, the lofty Ferris Wheel, the 
highly amusing street in Cairo, the natives of other quarters of the world, with 
their varied ideas of entertainment, and so on ad libitum. The Plaisance was 
a throng and a roar of approval from start to finish ; men like better to be 
amused than to be instructed ; and when the sun set on October 30th and the 
Fair came to an end, this was one of the last parts of the grounds to be deserted. 

THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 

An important event of this period calls next for attention. The fertile 
North Pacific islands composing the group known under the general name of 





476 ADMINISTRATION OF CLEVELAND. 

]?Ia\vaii have long been of interest to different nations, and especially to our 
country. A treaty was made in 1849 between Hawaii and the United States, 
which provided for commerce and the extradition of criminals, and in 1875 a 
reciprocity ti-eaty was concluded. This gave a marked impetus to the sugar 
industry, which was almost wholly in the liands of foreigners. Further treaty 
rights were confirmed by Congress in 1891. 

David Kalakaua became king of Hawaii in 1874. He had slight ability, 
and was fonder of the 23leasures of life tluin of measures for the good of his 
country and subjects. He was displeased to see the hold gained by foreigners 
in his country and their rapidly growing power. He joined with the native Leg- 
islature in its cry of " Hawaii for the Hawaiians," and did all he could to check 
the material progress of the islands. Progressive men, however, gained control, 
and in 1887 Kalakaua was compelled to sign a new constitution which deprived 
him of all but a shadow of authority. The white residents wei-e granted the 
right of suflfragd and closer relations were established with the United States. 

While engaged in negotiating a treaty with our country Kalakaua died, in 
1891, in San Francisco, and his sister, Liliuokalani, succeeded him as queen. 
She was much of the same mould as her brother, but of a more revengeful 
nature. She was angered against the foreigners and the progressive party, and 
alert for an opportunity to strike them a fatal blow. She thought the time had 
come in January, 1893, when the leading party was bitterly divided over im- 
portant measures. She summoned the Legislature and urged it to adopt a new 
constitution, which took away the right of suffrage from the white residents and 
restored to the crown the many privileges that had been taken from it. She 
was so radical in her policy that her friends induced her to modify it in several 
respects. She was thoroughly distrusted by the white residents, who did not 
doubt that she would break all her promises the moment the pretext offered. 
Nor would they have been surprised if a general massacre of the white inhab- 
itants were ordered. 

So deep-seated was the alarm that the American residents appealed for 
protection to the United States man-of-war Boston, which was lying in tlie 
harbor of Honolulu. The commander landed a company of marines, against 
the protest of the queen's minister of foreign affairs and the governor of the 
island, although they were assured that no attempt would be made to interfere 
with their rights. In the face of this assurance, a revolt took place, the 
monarchy was declared at an end, and a provisional government was organized, 
to continue until terms of union with tlie United States could be agreed upon. 

More decided steps followed. On February 1, 1894, the government was 
formally placed under the protectorate of the United States, and the Stars and 
Stripes was hoisted over the government building by a party of marines. There 



FRE8IDENT CLEVELAND'S CHANGE OF POLICY. 



477 



ffag a strong sentiment in favor of annexation, and the American minister was 
liighly pleased. 

President Harrison was of the same mind, and authorized the presence on 
the island of troops that might be needed to protect the lives and property of 
Americans there, but he disavowed the protectorate. No doubt, however, he 
favored the movement, but thought it wise to "make haste slowly." 

In a short time, a treaty was framed which was acceptable to the President. 
It provided that the government of Hawaii should remain as it was, the supreme 
power to be vested in a commissioner of the United States, with the right to 
veto any of the acts of the local 
government. The public debt was 
to be assumed by the United States, 
while Liliuokalani was to be pen- 
sioned at the rate of $20,000 a 
yeaj-, and her daughter was to 
receive $150,000. President Harri- 
son urged upon the Senate the rati- 
fication of the treaty, fearing that 
delay would induce some other power 
to step in and take the prize. 

PRESIDENT Cleveland's change 

OF POLICY. 

Such was the status when Presi- 
dent Cleveland came into ofKce on 
the 4th of March, 1893. His views 
were the very opposite of his prede- 
cessor's, and he took steps to enforce 
them. He maintained there would 
have been no revolution in Hawaii 
had not the force of marines landed 
from the Boston. He withdrew 
the proposed treaty from the Senate, and sent James H. Blount, of Georgia, to 
Hawaii as special commissioner to make an investigation of all that had occurred, 
and to act in harmony with the views of the President. On the 1st of April, 
Blount caused the American flag to be hauled down, and formally dissolved the 
protectorate. Minister Stevens was recalled and succeeded by Mr. Blount as 
minister plenipotentiary. Steps were taken to restore Liliuokalani, and her own 
brutal stubbornness was all that prevented. She was determined to have the lives 
of the leaders who had deposed her, and to banish their families. This could 




JAMES G. BLAINE. 

(1830-1893.) 
Secretary of State under Harrison's administration. 



478 ADITINISTRATION OF CLEVELAND. 

not be permitted, and the Dole government refused the request to yield its 
authority to the queen. 

The situation brought President Cleveland to a standstill, for he had first 
to obtain the authority of Congress in order to use force, and that body was so 
opposed to his course that it would never consent to aid him. The provisional 
government grew stronger, and speedily sujij^ressed a rebellion that was set on 
foot by the queen. It won the respect of its enemies by showing clemency to 
the plotters, when it would have been legally justified in putting the leaders to 
death. The queen was arrested, whereupon she solemnly renounced for herself 
and heirs all claim to the throne, urged her subjects to do the same, and 
declared her allegiance to the republic. 

ANNEXATION OF HAWAII. 

Let us anticipate a few events. In May, 1898, Representative Newlands 
introduced into the House a resolution jiroviding for the annexation of Hawaii. 
Considerable opposition developed in the Senate, but the final vote was carried, 
July 6th, by 42 to 21. The President appointed as members of the commission, 
Senators Shelby M. Cullom, of Illinois; John T. Morgan, of Alabama; Eepre- 
sentative Robert R. Hitt, of Illinois; and President Dole and Chief Justice 
Judd, of the Hawaiian Republic. All the congressmen named were members 
of the Committee on Foreign Relations and Foreign Affairs. 

The news of the admission of Hawaii to the Union was received in the 
islands with great rejoicing. A salute of one hundred guns was fired on the 
Executive Building grounds at Honolulu, and the formal transfer, August 12th, 
Avas attended with api:)ro2iriate ceremonies. In 1900 Hawaii was made a Terri- 
tory of the United States, Sanford B. Dole, ]iresident of the late republic, being 
continued in power as governor of the Territory. 

THE GREAT RAILROAD STRIKE OF 1894. 

One of the greatest railroad strikes in this country occun-ed in the summei 
of 1894. Early in the spring of that year, the Pullman Car Company, whose 
works are near Chicago, notified their employes that they had to choose between 
accepting a reduction in their wages or having the works closed. They accepted 
the cut, although the reduction was from twenty-five to fifty per cent, of what 
they had been receiving. 

When May came, the distressed workmen declared it impossible for them 
and their families to live on their meagre pay. They demanded a restoration 
of the old rates; but the company refused, affirming that they were running the 
business at a loss and solely with a view of keeping the men at work. On the 
11th of May, 3,000 workmen, a majority of the whole number, quit labor and 
the company closed their works. 



THE GREAT RAILROAD STRIKE OF 1894. 



479 



The American Railway Union assumed charge of the strike and ordered 
i boycott of all Pullman cars. Eugene V. Debs was the president of the Union, 
and his sweeping order forbade all engineers, brakemen, and switchmen to 
handle the Pullman cars on every road that used them. This was far-reaching, 
since the Pullman cars are used on almost every line in the country. 

A demand was made upon the Pullman Company to submit the question 
to arbitration, but the directors refused on the ground that there was nothing to 
arbiti-ate, the question being whether or not they were to be permitted to operate 
their own works for themselves. A boycott was declared on all roads running 




ON THE BALTIMORE AND OHIO RAILWAY. 



out of Chicago, beginning on the Illinois Central. Warning was given to every 
road handling the Pullman cars that its employes would be called out, and, if 
that did not prove efiective, every trade in the country would be ordered to 
strike. 

The railroad companies were under heavy bonds to draw the Pullman cars, 
and it would have cost large sums of money to break their contracts. They 
refused to boycott, and, on June 26th, President Debs declared a boycott on 
twenty-two roads running out of Chicago, and ordered the committees repre- 
senting the employes to call out the workmen without an hour's unnecessary 



delay. 



480 ADMINISTRATION OF CLEVELAND. 

The strike rapidly spread. Debs urged the employes to refrain from injur- 
ing the property of their employers, but such advice is always thrown away. 
Very soon rioting broke out, trains were derailed, and men who attempted to 
take the strikers' places were savagely maltreated. There was such a general 
block of freight that prices of the necessaries of life rose in Chicago and actual 
suffering impended. So much property was destroyed that the companies called 
on the city and county authorities for protection. The men sent to cope with 
the strikers were too few, and when Governor Altgeld forwarded troops to the 
scenes of the outbreaks, they also were too weak, and many of the militia 
openly showed their sympathy with the mob. 

Growing bolder, the strikers checked the mails and postal service and re- 
sisted deputy marshals. This brought the national government into the quarrel, 
since it is bound to provide for the safe transmission of the mails. On July 2d 
a Federal writ was issued covering tlie judicial district of northern Illinois, for- 
bidding all interference with the United States mails and with interstate railway 
commerce. Several leaders of the strike were arrested, whereat the mob became 
more threatening than ever. Tlie government having been notified that Federal 
troops were necessary to enforce the orders of the courts in Chicago, a strong 
force of cavalry, artillery, and infantry was sent thither. Governor Altgeld pro- 
tested, and President Cleveland told him in effect to attend to his own business 
and sent more troops to the Lake City. 

There were several collisions between the mob and military, in which a 
number of the former were killed. Buildings were fired, trains ditched, and the 
violence increased, whereupon the President dispatched more troops thither, with 
the warning that if necessary he would call out the whole United States army to 
put down the lawbreakers. 

The strike, wliicli was pressed almost wholly by foreigners, was not confined 
to Chicago. A strong antipathy is felt toward railroads in California, owing to 
what some believe have been the wrongful means employed by such corporations 
on the Pacific coast. 

There were ugly outbreaks in Los Angeles, Oakland, and Sacramento, the 
difiiculty being intensified by the refusal of the militia to act against the strikers. 
A force of regular soldiers, while hurrying over the railroad to the scene of the 
disturbance, was ditched by the strikers and several killed and badly hurt. The 
incensed soldiers were eager for a chance to reach the strikers, but they were 
under fine discipline and their officers showed great self-restraint. 

END OF THE STRIKE. 

The course of all violent strikes is short. The savage acts repel whatever 
sympathy may have been felt for the workingmen at first Few of the real saf- 



II 



COXEY'S COMMONWEAL ARMY. 481 

ferers took part in the turbulent avts. It was the foreigners and the desperate 
men who used the grievances as a pretext for their outlawry, in which they were 
afraid to indulge at other times. Then, too, the stern, repressive measures of 
President Cleveland had a salutary effect. Many labor organizations when 
called upon to strike replied with expressions of sympathy, but decided to keep 
at work. President Debs, Vice-President Howard, and other prominent mem- 
bers of the American Railway Union were arrested, July 10th, on the charge of 
obstructing the United States mails and interfering with the execution of the 
laws of the United States. A number — forty-three in all — was indicted by 
the Federal grand jury, July 19th, and the bonds were fixed at $10,000 each. 
Bail was offered, but they declined to accept it and went to jail. C/i December 
14th, Debs was sentenced to six months' imprisonment for contempt, the terms 
of the others being fixed at three months. 

On August 5th, the general committee of strikers officially declared the 
strike at an end in Chicago, and their action was speedily imitated elsewhere. 

coxey's commonweal army. 

One of the most remarkable appeals made directly to the law-making 
powers by the unemployed was that of Coxey's " Commonweal Army." De- 
spite some of its grotesque features, it was deserving of more sympathy than it 
received, for it represented a pitiful phase of human poverty and suffering. 

The scheme was that of J. S. Coxey, of Massillon, Ohio, who left that town 
on the 25th of March, 1894, with some seventy-five men. They carried no 
weapons, and believed they would gather enough recruits on the road to number 
100,000 by the time they reached Washington, where their demands made 
directly upon Congress would be so imposing that that body would not dare 
refuse them. They intended to ask for the passage of two acts: the first to 
provide for the issue of $500,000,000 in legal-tender notes, to be expended 
under the direction of the secretary of war at the rate of $20,000,000 monthly, 
in the construction of roads in different parts of the country; the second to 
authorize any State, city, or village to deposit in the United States treasury non- 
interest-bearing bonds, not exceeding in amount one-half the assessed valuation 
of its property, on which the secretary of the treasury should issue legal-tender 
notes. 

This unique enterprise caused some misgiving, for it was feared that such 
an immense aggregation of the unemployed would result in turbulence and 
serious acts of violence. Few could restrain sympathy for the object of the 
" army," while condemning the means adopted to make its purpose effective. 

The result, however, was a dismal fiasco. The trampers committed no 
depredations, and when they approached a town and camped near it the authori* 



482 ADMINISTRATION OF CLEVELAND. 

ties and citizens were quite willing to supply their immediate wants in order to 
get rid of them. But, while a good many recruits were added, fully as many 
deserted. At no time did Coxey's army number more than 500 men, and 
when it reached Washington on the 1st of May it included precisely 336 
persons, who paraded through the streets. Upon attempting to enter the 
Capitol grounds they were excluded by the jjolice. Coxey and two of his 
friends disregarded the commands, and were arrested and ' fined five dollars 
apiece and sentenced to twenty days' imprisonment for violating the' statute 
against carrying a banner on the grounds and in not " keeping olf the grass." 
The army quickly dissolved and was heard of no more. 

Similar organizations started from Oregon, Montana, Colorado, Wyoming, 
and different points for Washington. In some instances disreputable characters 
joined them and committed disorderly acts. In the State of Washington they 
seized a railroad train, had a vicious fight with deputy marshals, and it was 
necessary to call out the militia to subdue them. Trouble occurred in Kansas, 
Illinois, and Pennsylvania. The total strength of the six industrial armies 
never reached 6,000. 

ADMISSION OF UTAH. 

On the 4th of January, 1896, Utah became the forty-fifth member of the 
Federal Union. The symbolical star on the flag is at the extreme right of the 
fourth row from the top. The size of the national flag was also changed from 
6 by 5 feet to 5 feet 6 inches by 4 feet 4 inches. 

Utah has been made chiefly famous through the Mormons, who emigrated 
thither before the discovery of gold in California. Its size is about double that 
of the State of New York, and its chief resources are mineral and agricultural. 
It forms a part of the Mexican cession of 1848, and its name is derived from 
the Ute or Utah Indians. Salt Lake City was founded, and Utah asked for 
admission into the Union in 1849, but was refused. A territorial government 
was organized in 1860, with Brigham Young as governor. It has been shown 
elsewhere that in 1857 it was necessary to send Federal troops to Utah to 
enforce obedience to the laws. Polygamy debarred its admission to the Union 
for many years. 

The constitution of the State allows women to vote, hold office, and sit on 
juries, and a trial jury numbers eight instead of twelve persons, three-fourths 
of whom may render a verdict in civil cases, but unanimity is required to con- 
vict of crime. The constitution also forbids polygamy, and the Mormon 
authorities maintain that it is not practiced except where plural marriages were 
contracted before the passage of the United States law prohibiting such unions. 

It has been said by scientists that the power which goes to waste at Niagara 
Falls would, if properly utilized, operate all the machinery in the world. The 



NIAGARA HARNESSED. 



■l.s:] 



discoveries made in electricity have turned attention to tliis inconceivable storage 
of power, with the result that Niagara has been practically "harnessed." 

In 1886, the Niagara Falls Power Company was incorporated, followed 
three years later by 
that of the Cataract 
Construction Com- 
pany. Work began 
in October, 1890, 
a n d three more 
years were required 
to complete the tun- 
n e 1 , the surface- 
canal, and the pre- 
liminary wheel-^jits. 

The first dis- 
tribution of power 
was made in August, 
1895, to the works 
of the Pittsburg Re- 
duction Company, 
near the canal. 
Other companies 
were added, and the 
city of Buffalo, in 
December, 18 9 5, 
granted a franchise 
to the company to 
supply power to that 
city. The first 
customer was the 
Buffalo Railway 
Company. Novem- 
ber 15, 1896, at 
midnight, the cur- 
rent was transmitted 
by a pole line, con- 
sisting of three continuous cables of uninsulated copper, whose total length was 
seventy-eight miles. Since that date, the street cars have been ©iterated by 
the same motor, with more industrial points continually added. 

While our past history shows that we have had only two wars with Great 




A GOLD PROSPECTING PARTY ON DEBATABLE LAND IN 
BRITISH GUIANA. 



484 ADMINISTRATION OF CLEVELAND. 

isritain, yet it shows also that talk of war has been heard fully a score of times. 
Lono- after 1812, we were extremely sensitive as regarded the nation that the 
majority of Americans looked upon as our hereditary foe, and the calls for war 
have been sounded in Congress and throughout the land far oftener than most 
people suspect. That such a calamity to mankind has been turned aside is due 
mainly to the good sense and mutual forbearance of the nuijority of people in 
both countries. England and the United States are the two great English- 
speaking nations. Together they are stronger than all the world combined. 
With the same language, the same literature, objects, aims, and religion, a war 
between them would be the most awful catastrophe that could befall humanity. 

The last flurry with the "mother country" occurred in the closing weeks 
of 1895, and related to Venezuela, which had been at variance with England 
for many years. Until 1810, the territory lying between the mouths of the 
Orinoco and the Amazon was known as the Guianas. In the year named 
Spain ceded a large part of the country to Venezuela, and in 1814 Holland 
ceded another to Great Britain. The boundary between the Spanish and Dutch 
possessions had never been fixed by treaty, and the dispute between England 
and Venezuela lasted until 1887, when diplomatic relations were broken off 
between the two countries. 

Venezuela asked that the dis^Jute might be submitted to arbitration, but 
England would not agree, though the territory in question was greater in extent 
than the State of New York. The United States was naturally interested, for 
the "Monroe Doctrine" was involved, and in February, 1895, Congress passed 
a joint resolution, approving the suggestion of the President that the question 
should be submitted to arbitration, but England still refused. A lengthy 
correspondence took place between Great Britain and this country, and, on 
December 17, 1895, in submitting it to Congress, President Cleveland asked for 
authority from that body to appoint a commission to deteimine the merits of the 
boundary dispute, as a guide to the government in deciding its line of action 
insisting further that, if England maintained her unwarrantable course, the 
United States should resist "by every means in its power, as a willful aggres- 
sion upon its rights and interests, the appropriation by Great Britain of any 
lands, or the exercise of governmental jurisdiction over any territory, which 
after investigation we have determined of right belongs to Venezuela." 

There was no mistaking the warlike tone of these words. The country and 
Congress instantly fired up, and the land resounded with war talk. Congress 
immediately appropriated the sum of $100,000 for the expense of the commission 
of inquiry, and two days later the Senate passed the bill without a vote in 
opposition. The committee was named on the 1st of the following January and 
promptly began its work. 



PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1896. 



■isr. 



But the sober second thought of wise men in both countries soon made 
itself felt. Without prolonging the story, it may be said that the dispute 
finally went to arbitration, February 2, 1897, where it should have gone in the 
first place, and it was settled to the fidl satisfaction of Great Britain, the United 
States, and Venezuela. Another fact may as well be conceded, without any 
reflection upon our patriotism: Had England accepted our challenge to war, for 
which she was fully prepared with her invincible navy, and we were in a state 




CODDERT WHITE. BREWER. ALVIT. BILMAN. 

VENEZUEtiAN COMMISSION. 

Appointed by President Cleveland, January, 1896, to determine the true boundary between British Guiana and Venezuela. 



of uneasiness, the United States would have been taught a lesson that she 
would have remembered for centuries to come. Thank God, the trial was sjDared 
to us, and in truth can never come while common sense reigns. 

THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1896. 

The presidential election in the fall of 1896 was a remarkable one. The 
month of September had hardly opened when there were seven presidential 
tickets in the field. Given in the order of their nominations they were : 



486 



ADMINISTRATION OF CLEVELAND. 



Prohibition (May 27th) — Joshua Levering, of Maryland; Hale Johnson, 
of Illinois. 

National Party, Free Silver, Woman-Suffrage offshoot of the regular Pro- 
hibition (May 28th) — Charles E. Bentley, of Nebraska; James H. Southgate, 
of North Carolina. 

Republican (June 18th) — William McKinley, of Ohio; Garret A. Hobart, 
of New Jersey. 

Socialist-Labor (July 4th) — Charles H. Matchett, of New York ; Matthew 

Maguire, of New Jersey. 

Democratic (July 10th to 11th) 
— William Jennings Bryan, of 
Nebraska ; Arthur Sewall, of Maine. 
People's Party (July 24th to 
25th) — William Jennings Bryan, of 
Nebraska; Thomas E, Watson, of 
Georgia. 

National Democratic Party 
(September 8th) — John McAuley 
Palmer, of Illinois; Simon Boliver 
Buckner, of Kentucky. 

As usual, the real contest was 
between the Democrats and Republi- 
cans. Tbe 2:)latform of the former 
demanded the free coinage of silver, 
which was opposed by the Republi- 
cans, who insisted upon preserving 
the existing gold standard. This 
question caused a split in each of the 
leading parties. When the Repub- 
lican nominating convention inserted 
the gold and silver plank in its platform, Senator Teller, of Colorado, led 
thirty-two delegates in their formal withdrawal from the convention. A large 
majority of those to the National Democi-atic Convention favored the free 
coinage of silver in the face of an urgent appeal against it by President 
Cleveland. They would accept no compromise, and, after "jamming" through 
their platform and nominating Mr. Bryan, they made Arthur Sewall their 
candidate for Vice-President, though he was president of a national bank and a 
believer in the gold standard. 

In consequence of this action, the Populists or People's Party refused to 




WM. JENNINGS BKYAN. 

Democratic candidate for President, 1896. 



PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1896. -iS7 

accept the candidature of Mr. Sewall, and put in his place the name of Thomas 
E. Watson, who was an uncompromising Populist. 

There was also a revolt among the "Sound Money Democrats," as they 
were termed. Although they knew they had no earthly chance of winning, 
they were determined to place themselves on record, and, after all the other 
tickets were in the field, they put Palmer and Buckner in nomination. In their 
platform they condemned the platform adopted by the silver men and the tariff 
policy of the Republicans. They favored tariff for revenue only, the single 
gold standard, a bank currency under govermental supervision, international 
arbitration, and the maintenance of the independence and authority of the 
Supreme Court. 

Mr. Bryan threw all his energies into the canvass and displayed wonderful 
industry and vigor. He made whirlwind tours through the country, speaking 
several times a day and in the evening, and won many converts. Had the 
election taken place a few weeks earlier than the regular date, it is quite probable 
he would have won. Mr. McKinley made no speech-making tours, but talked 
many times to the crowds who called upon him at his home in Canton, Ohio. 
The official vote in November was as follows : 

McKinley and Hobart, Republican, 7,101,401 popular votes; 271 electoral 
votes. 

Bryan and Sewall, Democrat and Populist, 6,470,(356 popular votes; 176 
electoral votes. 

Levering and Johnson, Prohibition, 132,007 popular votes. 

Palmer and Buckner, National Democrat, 133,148 popular votes. 

Matchett and Maguire, Socialist-Labor, 36,274 popular votes. 

Bentley and Southgate, Free Silver Prohibition, 13,969 popular votes. 

Despite the political upheavals that periodically occur thioughout our 
country, it steadily advances in prosperity, progress and growth. Its resources 
were limitless, and the settlement of the vast fertile areas in the West and 
Northwest went on at an extraordinary rate. 




CORNER AT TOP OF STAIRWAY NEW CONGRESSIONAL LIBRARY, WASHINGTON, D. C. 

488 



CHAPTER XXIII. 
ADIVIINISTRATION OK NIcKINLEY, 1897-1901. 

William McKinley — Organization of "Greater New York" — Removal of General Grant's Remains to 
Morningside Park — The Klondike Gold Excitement — Spain's Misrule in Cuba — Preliminary Events 
of the Spanish-American War. 



THE TWENTY-FIFTH PRESIDENT. 

William McKinley was born at Niles, Trumbull County, Ohio, January 
29, 1843, of Scotch ancestry, his father, David, being one of the pioneers of the 
iron business in Eastern Ohio. 

The parents were in moderate 
circumstances, and the son, having 
prepared for college, was matricu- 
lated at Alleghany College, Mead- 
ville, Pennsylvania, but his poor 
health soon obliged him to return 
to his home. He became a school- 
teacher at the salary of $25 per 
month, and, as was the custom in 
many of the country districts, he 
"boarded round;" that is, he made 
his home by turns with the different 
patrons of his school. He used 
rigid economy, his ambition being 
to save enough money to pay his 
way through college. 

Destiny, however, had another 
career awaiting him. The great 
Civil War was impending, and when 
the news of the firing on Fort Sum- ' 
ter was flashed through the land, 
his patriotic impulses were roused, and, like thousands of others, he hurried 
to the defense of his country. He enlisted in Company E, as a private. I 
was attached to the Twenty-third Ohio regiment, of which W. 8. Rosecran» 

(489) 




■WILLIAM McKINLET. 

(1843-1901.) One term, 1897-1901. 



100 ADMINISTRATION OF McKINLEY. 

was colonel and Rutherford B. Hayes major. Of no other regiment can it be 
said that it furnished two Presidents to the United States. 

For more than a year Private McKinley carried a musket, and on the 15tk 
of April, 1862, was promoted to a sergeancy. Looking back to those stirring 
days of his young manhood. President McKinley has said : 

"I always recall them with pleasure. Those fourteen months that I served 
in the ranks taught me a great deal. I was but a schoolboy when I went into 
the army, and that first year was a formative j^eriod of my life, during which I 
learned much of men and affairs. I have always been glad tliat I entered the 
service as a private and served those months in that capacity." 

McKinley made a good soldier and saw plenty of fighting. Six weeks 
after leaving Columbus, his regiment was in the battle of Carnifex Ferry, 
Western Virginia, where the only victories of the early days of the war were 
won. It was the hardest kind of work, hurrying back and forth through the 
mountains, drenched by rains, and on short rations most of the time. The boy 
did his work well and was soon ordered to Washington, where he became one 
of the units in the splendid Army of the Potomac under General McClellan. 

At Antietam, the bloodiest battle of the war, McKinley's gallantry was so 
conspicuous that he was promoted to a lieutenancy. He was sent to West 
Virginia again, where he was fighting continually. As an evidence of the kind 
of work he did, it may be said that one morning his regiment breakfasted in 
Pennsylvania, ate dinner in Maryland, and took supper in Virginia. 

Winning promotion by his fine conduct, he became captain, July 25, 1864, 
and was brevetted major, on the recommendation of General Sheridan, for con- 
spicuous bravery at Cedar Creek and Fisher's Hill. The title, "Major McKin- 
ley," therefore, is the military one by which the President is remembered. 

With the coming of peace, the young man found himself a veteran of the 
war at the age of twenty-two, and compelled to decide upon the means of earning 
his living. He took up tlie study of law, and was graduated from the Albany, 
N. Y.; law school, and admitted to the bar in 1867. He began practice in 
Canton, Ohio, and, by his ability and conscientious devotion, soon achieved 
success. He early showed an interest in jwlitics, and was often called ujion to 
make public addresses. He identified himself with the Republican party, and 
was elected district attorney in Stark County, which almost invariably went 
Democratic. In 1876, he was elected to Congress, against a normal Democratic 
majority, and was re-elected for five terms, being defeated when he ran the sixth 
time through the gerrymandering of his district by his political opponents. 

Durino; his Ions; career in Congress, Mr. McKinlev was noted for his cleiir 
grasp of national questions and his interest in tariff Icgislution. It was in 1890 
that lie brought about the passage of the tarifl' measure which is always asso- 




"GREATER NEW YORK. 



491 



ciated with his name. In the same year he was defeated, but, being nominated 
for governor, he was elected by 80,000 majority. As in the case of Mr. Cleve- 
land, this triumph attracted national attention, and his administi'ation was so 
satisfactory that he received the nomination for the jiresidency at the first 



opportunity. 

The presidential administration of Mc 
the most eventful in our history, for, as set 
ters, it marked our entrance among the lead 
in the field of territorial expansion beyond 
tinent and hemisphere. Before entering 
phase of our national existence, attention 
happenings of a different nature. One of 
these was the organization of what is popu- 
larly known as "Greater New York." 



Kinley proved to be one of 
forth in the following chap- 
ing nations of the world, 
the limits of our own cou- 
upon the history of this 
must be given to important 




THE OBELISK IN CENTBAL PAKK, NEW YOKE. 
"greater new YORK." 

For a number of years, a prominent question among the inhabitants of the 
metropolis and outlying cities was that of their union under one government. 
The New York Legislature in 1890 appointed a committee to inquire into and 
report upon the subject. After several years of discussion, the Legislature 
provided for a referendum, the result of which showed a large majority in favor 



402 ADMINISTRATION OF McKINLEY. 

of uniting the cities referred to. A bill was carefully framed, passed both 
branches of the law-making body by a strong vote in February, 1897, and was 
signed by the mayors of Brooklyn and of Long Island City. Mayor Strong, 
of New York, howevei-, vetoed the bill, but the Legislature immediately repassed 
it, and it was signed by Governor Black. 

The expanded metropolis began its official existence January 1, 1898, the 
government being vested in a mayor and a municipal assembly, which consists 
of two branches elected by the people. The population at tlie time named was 
about 3,400,000, the daily increase being 400. Should this rate continue, the 
total population at the middle of the twentieth century will be 10,000,000, 
which will make it the most pojiulous in the world, unless London wakes up 
and grows faster than at j^resent. 

The area of Greater New York is 317.77 square miles. Its greatest width 
from the Hudson River to the boundary line across Long Island beyond Creed- 
moor is sixteen miles, and the extreme length, from the southern end of Staten 
Island to the northern limits of Yonkers, is thirty-two miles. Within these 
bounds are the cities of New York, Brooklyn, Long Island City, Jamaica, all 
of Staten Island, the westei-n end of Long Island, Coney Island, Rockaway, 
Valley Stream, Flushing, Whitestone, College Point, Willets' Point, Fort 
Schuyler, Throggs' Neck, Westchester, Baychester, Pelham Manor, Van 
Cortlandt, Riverdale, and Spuyten Devil. 

REMOVAL OF GENERAL GRANT's REMAINS TO MORNINGSIDE PARK. 

The removal of the remains of General Grant to their final resting-place 
in the magnificent tomb on Morningside Heights, on the banks of the Hudson, 
took place during the first year of McKinley's administration, and was marked 
by ceremonies among the most impressive ever witnessed in the metropolis of 
the country. The final tributes to the foremost defender of the country were 
made by eloquent tongues, and pens, and by the reverent affection of the nation 
itself. 

There have been many attempts made to analyze the character of this remark- 
able man. Some of his most intimate friends failed to understand him. Among 
the best of these analyses is that of Lieutenant-General John M. Schofield. In 
this our last reference to Genei-al Grant, the words of his trusted confidant 
deserve record : 

" General Sherman wrote that he could not understand Grant, and doubted 
if Grant understood himself. A very distinguished statesman, whose name I 
need not mention, said to me that, in his opinion, there was nothing special in 
Grant to understand. Others have varied widely in their estimates of that 



REMOVAL OF GENERAL GRANT'S REMAINS. 



493 



extraordinary cliaracter. Yet I believe ita most extraordinary quality was its 
extreme simplicity, so extreme that many have entirely overlooked it in their 
search for some deeply hidden secret to account for so great a character, 
unmindful of the general fact that simplicity is one of the most prominent 
attributes of greatness. 

"The greatest of all the traits of Grant's character was that which lay 
always on the surface, visible to all who had eyes to see it. That was his moral 
and intellectual honesty, integrity, sincerity, veracity, and justice. He was 
incapable of any attempt to deceive anybody, except for a legitimate purpose, 
as in military strategy; and, above 
all, he was incapable of deceiving 
himself. He possessed that rarest 
of all human faculties, the power 
of a perfectly accurate estimate of 
himself, uninfluenced by vanity, 
pride, ambition, flattery, or self-in- 
terest. Grant was very far from 
being a modest man, as the word 
is generally understood. His just 
self-esteem was as far above it as it 
was above flattery. The highest 
enconiums were accepted for what he 
believed them to be worth. They 
did not disturb his equilibrium in 
the slightest degree. Confiding, just, 
and generous to everybody else, he 
treated with silent contempt any 
suggestion that he had been unfaith- 
ful to any obligation. He was too 
proud to explain where his honor 
had been questioned. 

" While Grant knew his own merits as well as anybody did, he also knew 
his own imperfections and estimated them at their real value. For example, 
his inability to speak in public, which produced the impression of extreme 
modesty or diffidence, he accepted simply as a fact in his nature which was of 
little or no consequence, and which he did not even care to conceal. He would 
not, for many years, even take the trouble to jot down a few words in advance, 
so as to be able to say something when called upon. Indeed, I believe he would 
have regarded it as an unworthy attempt to appear in a false light if he had 
made preparations in advance for an 'extemporaneous* speech. Even when he 




JOHN SHEHMAN. 

Secretary of State under President McKinley; resigned 1898. 



494 ADMINISTRATION OF McKINLEY. 

did in later years write some notes on the back of a dinner-card, he would take 
care to let everybody see that he had done so by holding the card in plain view 
while he read his little speech. After telling a story, in which the facts had 
been modified somewhat to give the greater effect, which no one could enjoy 
more than he did. Grant would take care to explain exactly in what respects he 
had altered the facts for the purpose of increasing the interest in his story, so 
that he might not leave any wrong impression. 

"When Grant's attention was called to any mistake he had committed, he 
would see and admit it as quickly and unreservedly as if it had been made by 
anybody else, and with a smile which expressed the exact opposite of that 
feeling which most men are apt to show under like circumstances. His love of 
truth and justice was so far above all personal considerations that he showed 
unmistakable evidence of gratification when any error into which he might 
have fallen was corrected. The fact that he had made a mistake and that it was 
plainly pointed out to him did not produce the slightest unpleasant impression ; 
while the further fact, that no harm had resulted from his mistake, gave him 
real pleasure. In Grant's judgment, no case in which any wrong had been 
done could possibly be regarded as finally settled until that wrong was righted, 
and if he himself had been, in any sense, a party to that wrong, he was the 
more earnest in his desire to see justice done. While he thus showed a total 
absence of any false pride of opinion or of knowledge, no man could be firmer 
than he in adherence to his mature judgment, nor more earnest in his deter- 
mination, on proper occasions, to make it understood that his opinion was his 
own and not borrowed from anybody else. His pride in his own mature 
opinion was very great; in that he was as far as possible from being a modest 
man. This absolute confidence in his own judgment upon any subject which 
he had mastered, and the moral courage to take upon himself alone the highest 
responsibility, and to demand full authority and freedom to act according to his 
own judgment, without interference from anybody, added to his accurate esti- 
mate of his own ability and clear perception of the necessity for undivided 
authority and responsibility in the conduct of military operations, and in all 
that concerns the efficiency of armies in time of war, constituted the foundation 
of that very great character. 

"When summoned to Washington to take command of all the armies, with 
the rank of lieutenant-general, he determined, before he reached the capital, 
that he would not accept the command under any conditions than those above 
stated. His sense of honor and of loyalty to the country would not permit 
him to consent to be placed in a false position, one in which he could not 
perform the service which the country had been led to expect from him, and he 
had the courage to say so in unqualified terms. 



REMOVAL OF GENERAL GRANT'S REMAINS. 



495 



" These traits of Grant's character must now be perfectly familiar to all 
who have stmlied his history, as well as to those who enjoyed familiar inter- 
course with him during his life. They are the traits of character which made 
him, as it seems to me, a very great man, the only man of our time, so far as we 
know, who possessed both the character and the military ability which were, 
under the circumstances, indispensable in the commander of the armies which 
were to suppress the great rebellion. 

"It has been said that Grant, like Lincoln, was a typical American, and 
for that reason was most beloved and respected by the people. That is true of 
the statesman and the soldier, as 
well as of the j)eople, if it is meant 
that they were the highest type, that 
ideal which commands the respect 
and admiration of the highest and 
best in a man's nature, however far 
he may know it to be above himself. 
The soldiers and the people saw in 
Grant or in Lincoln, not one of 
themselves, not a plain man of the 
people, nor yet some superior being 
whom they could not understand, 
but the personification of their high- 
est ideal of a citizen, soldier, or 
statesman, a man whose greatness 
they could see and understand as 
plainly as they could anything else 
under the sun. And there was no 
more mystery about it all, in fact, 
than there was in the popular mind." 




SPEAKER THOMAS B. REED. 

Resigned as Sjieaker in 1899. 



To the widow of General Grant 
was given the right to select the spot tor the last resting-place of his remains, 
she to repose after death beside her husband. She decided upon Riverside. 
It then became the privilege of his friends to provide a suitable tomb for the 
illustrious soldier. The funds needed, amounting to nearly half a million dol- 
lars, were raised by subscription, ground was broken on the anniversary of 
Grant's birthday, April 27, 1891, and a year later the corner-stone was laid by 
President Harrison. 

The tomb of General Grant, standing on the banks of the Hudson, is an 
imposing structure, square in shape, ninety feet on each side, and of the Grecian- 



496 



ADMINISTRATION OF McKINLEY. 



Jjoric order. The entrance on the south side is guarded by a portico in double 
lines of columns, approached by steps seventy feet in width. The tomb is 
Burmounted at a height of seventy-two feet with a cornice and parapet, above 
which is a circuhir cupola, seventy feet in diameter, terminating in a top the 
shape of a pyramid, which is 280 feet above the river. 

The interior of the structui-e is of cruciform shape, seventy-six feet at its 
greatest length, the piers of masonry at the corners being connected by arches 
■which form recesses. The arches are fifty feet in height, and are surmounted 
by an open circular gallery, capped with a jianneled dome, 105 feet above the 
floor. Scenes in General Grant's career are dejiicted with sculpture on the plane 




TOMB OP U. S. GRANT. NEW YOHK. 

and relieved surfaces in alto rilievo. The granite of the structure is light in 
color, and the sarcophagus of brilliant reddish porphyry. The crypt rests 
directly under the centre of the dome, stairways connecting with the passage 
surrounding the sarcophagus, where the remains of the widow of General Grant 
are eventually to repose. 

The ceremonies attending the removal of the remains on April 27, 1897, 
included three impressive displays, the ceremony at the tomb, the parade of the 
army — the National Guard and civic bodies — and the review of the navy and 
merchant marine on the Hudson. Tliose who gathered to take part in the final 
tribute to the great soldier included the President, Vice-President of the United 



i 



REMOVAL OF GENERAL GRANT'S REMAINS. 



497 



States, the Cabinet, many State governors, prominent American citizens, and 
representatives of foreign nations. From 129th Street to the Battery, and from 
Whitehall up East River to the Bridge, thousands of American and foreign 
flags were displayed, while the parade of men on foot included 60,000 persons. 
Bishop Newman opened the exercises with prayer, and President McKinley 
made one of the finest speeches of his life, the opening words of which were: 



"A great life, dedicated to the welfare of the nation, here finds its earthly 
coronation. Even if this day lacked the impressiveuess of ceremony and was 




devoid of pagean 
be memorable, be 
anniversary of the 
famous and best be 
ican soldiers." 



try, it would still 
cause it is the 
birth of the most 
loved of Amer- 

concluded with 



The President 
the words : - '' 

"With Wash revie^w op the navy and merchant ington and Lin- 

1 n\ ^11 MARINE ON THE HUDSON, APRIL 27, 1897. ''i^ 1 i 

coin, (jrrant had an exalted place in 

the history and the affections of the people. To-day his memory is held in equal 
esteem by those whom he led to victory, and by those who accepted his generous 
terms of peace. The veteran leaders of the Blue and Gray here meet not only 
to honor the name of Grant, but to testify to the living reality of a fraternaJ 



498 



ADMINISTRATION OF McKINLEY. 



national spirit which has triumphed over the differences of the past and trans 
cends the limitations of sectional lines. Its completion — which we pray God t-; 
speed — will be the nation's greatest glory. 

"It is right that General Grant should have a memorial commensurate with 
his greatness, and that his last resting-place should be in the city of his choice, 
to which he was so attached, and of whose ties he was not forgetful even in 
death. Fitting, too, is it that the great soldier should sleej") beside the noble 
river on whose banks he first learned the art of war, and of which he became 
master and leader without a rival. 

"But let us not forget the glorious distinction with which the metropolis 
among the fair sisterhood of American cities has honored his life and memory. 

With all that riches and sculpture can do 
to render the edifice worthy of the man, 
upon a site unsurpassed for magnificence, 
has this monument been reared by New 
York as a perpetual record of his illus- 
trious deeds, in the certainty that, as time 
passes, around it will assemble, with grati- 
tude and reverence and veneration, men of 
all climes, races, and nationalities. 

" New York holds in its keeping the 
precious dust of the silent soldier, but his 
achievements — what he and his brave com- 
rades wrought for mankind — are in the 
keeping of seventy millions of American 
citizens, who will guard the sacred heritage 







\mm AMUiKw ii;\\spiiRiuiii\ 



~^ 



ALASK.4 



--V: 



forever and forevermore." 



General Horace Porter, president of the Grant Memorial Association, made 
an address, giving the history of the crowning work of the association, rendering 
acknowledgment to those who had given valuable help, and closing with a 
masterly and eloquent tribute to the great citizen whom all had gathered to 
honor. 

THE KLONDIKE GOLD EXCITEMENT. 

There was much excitement throughout the country in 1897 over tlie 
reported discoveries of rich deposits of gold in the Klondike, as the region 
along the Yukon River in Alaska is called. These reports were discredited at 
first, but they were repeated, and proof soon appeared that they were based 
upon truth. In the autumn of 1896, about fifty miners visited the section, led 
thither by the rumors that had come to them. None of the men carried mor# 






SPAIN'S MISRULE IN CUBA. 



4!MI 



than his outfit and a few hundred dollars, but when they returned they brought 
gold to the value of from $5,000 to $100,000 apiece, besides leaving claims behind 
them that were worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. In July, 1897, a 
party of miners arrived at Seattle from the Klondike, bringing with them 
nuggets and gold-dust weighing more than a ton and worth a million and a 
half of dollars. Besides this, other men continually came back with such 
quantities of the precious metal that it was apparent that not only were the 
reports justified, but, what 
is the exception in such 
eases, the whole truth had 
not been told. 

The natural conse- 
quence was that a rush 
set in for the Klondike, 
which is the name of a 
tributary of the Yukon, 
and flows through the 
richest gold fields, where 
the mining days of early 
California were repeated. 
Dawson City was founded 
at the mouth of the Klon- 
dike, and in a short time 
had a population of 5,000. 
Before the year closed, 
500 claims were located, 
with more taken up daily. 
As was inevitable, there 
was much sufiering, for 
the Yukon is closed by 
ice during the greater 
part of the year, and the 
winter climate is of Arctic 
severity. The most productive fields were found to be not in Alaska, but in 
the British provinces known as the Northwest Territories. While many 
gathered fortunes in the Klondike, the majority, after great hardships and 
Buffering, returned to their homes poorer than when they left them. 




V FOR THE TRAIL. 



SPAIN S MISRULE IN CUBA. 

The administration of McKinley occupies a prominent place in American 



500 ADMINISTRATION OF McKINLEY. 

history because of our brief and decisive war with Spain. A full account is 
given in the pages that follow, but it is proper in this chapter to set forth some 
historical facts, that will serve to clear the way to a proper understanding of the 
story of the war itself. 

Spain may best illustrate the certain decline of the Latin race and the rise 
of the Anglo-Saxon. When America was discovered, she was the leading 
maritime power of the world, but she was corrupt, rapacious, ferocious, and 
totally devoid of what is best expressed by the term "common sense." So 
lacking indeed was she in this prime requisite that she alienated, when it was 
just as easy to attract, the weaker nations and colonies with which she came in 
contact. It has been shown in the earlier chapters of this work that when her 
exploring expeditions into the interior of America were obliged to depend for 
their own existence upon the good-will of the natives, and when they could 
readily gain and retain that good-will, they roused the hatred of the simj^le- 
minded natives by their frightful, cruelties. The chief amusement of the early 
Spaniards was killing Indians. They did it from the innate brutality of their 
nature, when they could have gained tenfold more by justice and kindness. 

The treatment of those poor people was precisely what on a larger scale has 
been shown to her colonies. England wins and holds her dependencies through 
her liberality and justice; Spain repels hers through her treachery, falsehoods, 
and injustice. As a consequence, England has become one of the mightiest 
nations in the world, while Spain has steadily declined to a fourth-rate power. 
With the example of the results of her idiocy, to say nothing of its dishonor, 
ever before her, she has persisted in that idiocy, never learning from experience, 
but always selfish, short-sighted, cruel, treacherous, and unjust. 

The steadiness with which Cuba clung to the mother country won for her 
the title of the "Ever Faithful Isle." Had she received any consideration at 
all, she still would have held fast. She poured princely revenues into the lap 
of Spain; when other colonies revolted, she refused to be moved. It required 
long years of outrage, robbery, and injustice to turn her affection into hate, but 
Spain persisted until the time came when human nature could stand no more. 
The crushed worm turned at last. 

When Napoleon Bonaparte deposed the Bourbon King, Ferdinand VII., 
in 1808, and placed his brother Joseph on the throne of Spain, Cuba declared 
her loyalty to the old dynasty, and the king made many promises of wliat he 
would do to prove his gratitude when he should come to his own. This took 
place five years later, whereupon the king violated every pledge he had made. 

The truth gradually worked its way into the Cuban mind that the only 
thing a Spaniard could be depended upon to do is to violate his most solemn 
promises. Secret societies began assuming form in the island, whose plotting 



1 



SPAIN'S MISRULE IN CUBA. 



501 



and aim were to wrest their country from Spain, on the ground of the non-ful- 
tillment of the pledges made by Ferdinand VII. of what he would do when \\e 
came to the throne. 

Preparations were made for a revolt, whose avowed object was the estj b- 
iishment of a Cuban republic. A certain night in 1823 was fixed upon foi a 
general uprising, but there were traitors in the councils, who notified the authar- 
ities, and, before the date named, the leaders were arrested and the revolt: 
quenched ere a blow could be struck. v. 

These severe measures could not quell the spirit of liberty that was abroad 
It was not long before the Black Eagle Society was formed. It included many 
hundred members, had its headquarters in 
Mexico, and boldly secured recruits in 
the United States. But again the cause 
was betrayed by its members, the leaders 
were arrested and imprisoned, and Spain 
was secure for a time in the control of 
the island. 

As an illustration of that country's 
course against suspected citizens, it may 
be said that in 1844 a rumor spread that 
large numbers of the slaves on the plan- 
tations near Matanzas were making secret 
preparations to rise and slay their masters. 
Investigation failed to establish the truth 
of these charges, but many were put to 
the torture to compel them to confess, and 
nearly a hundred were condemned and 
shot in cold blood. 

Naturally the affairs of Cuba from 
its proximity were always of great interest to the United States, and a number 
of filibustering expeditions landed on the island and aided the Cubans in their 
futile revolts against Spain. These attempts at their best could only keep the 
island in a turmoil, and give Spain the pretext for using the most brutal meas- 
ures of repression. 

In 1868 a revolution occurred in Spain itself, and Queen Isabella, one of 
the worst rulers that sorely accursed country ever had, was driven into exile. 
Cuba had not forgotten the lesson of the opening of the century, and, instead 
of proclaiming her loyalty to the dejaosed dynasty, she seized what promised to 
be a favorable opportunity for gaining her own independence. 

One of the fairest and most impartial publications anywhere is the Edinr 




GENERAL CALIXTO GAHCIA. 

Hero of three wars for Cuba's freedom. Died of pneumoci* 

in Washington, D. C, December, 1898. 



502 ADMINISTRATION OF McKINLEY. 

burgh Review, which used the following language in giving the reasons for the 
Cuban revolt of 1868: 

" Spain governs the island of Cuba with an iron and blood-stained hand. 
The former holds the latter deprived of political, civil, and religious liberties. 
Hence the unfortunate Cubans being illegally prosecuted and sent into exile, or 
execOted by military commissions, in times of peace; hence their being kept 
from public meetings, and forbidden to speak or write on affairs of State ; hence 
their remonstrances against the evils that afflicted them being looked upon as 
the proceedings of rebels, from the fact that they are obliged to keep silence 
and obey; hence the never-ending plague of hungry officials from Spain to 
devour the product of their industry and labor; hence their exclusion from the 
art of government; hence the restrictions to which public instruction with them 
is subjected in order to keep them so ignorant as not to be able to know and 
enforce their rights in any shape or form whatever; hence the navy and the 
standing army, which are kept in their country at an enormous expenditure 
from their own wealth to make them bend their knees and submit their necks 
to the iron yoke that disgrsices them ; hence the grinding taxation under which 
they labor, and which would make all perish in misery but for the marvelous 
fertility of their soil." 

The opportunity was a golden one for Spain to win back the affection of 
Cuba by generosity and justice. What steps did she take to do so? 

Although the Cubans were ground to the very dust by taxation, levied in 
all cases by Spaniards, and not by their own officials, Spain projwsed, in 18G8, 
to add to the burden. In October of that year Carlos M. de Cespedes, a lawyer 
of Bayamo, raised the standard of revolt, placed himself at the head of a 
handful of patriots, whicli were soon joined by thousands, and in April, 1869, 
a republican constitution was adopted, slavery declared abolished, Cesjjedes was 
elected president, Francisco Aguilero vice-president, and a legislature was called 
together. 

There never was hope of this insurrection securing the independence ot 
Cuba. The patriots were too few in number, too badly armed and equipped, 
and not handled so as to be effective. But they caused great suffering and ruin 
throughout the island. They instituted a guerrilla system of warfare, and cost 
Spain many valuable lives. The wet and rainy seasons came and went, and still 
the savage fighting continued, until at last the rebels as well as the Si^aniards 
were ready to welcome peace. 

Martinez Campos was the Spanish commander, and he promised General 
Maximo Gomez, leader of the insurgents, that the reforms for which he and Lis 



SPAIN'S MISRULE IN CUBA. 



503 



comrades were contending should be granted on condition that they laid down 
their arms. The pledge was a sacred one, and no doubt Campos meant 
honestly to keep it. Unfortunately, however, there were higher powers than 
he behind him. Gomez accepted the promises of a brother soldier, and on 
February 10, 1878, the treaty of El Zanjon was signed. 

This treaty guaranteed representation to the Cubans in the Spanish Cortes, 
and all who took part in the insurrection were pardoned. 

Now the lesson of all this was so plain that the wayfaring man, though a 
fool, had no excuse for erring. Spain had bitterly learned the temper of the 
Cubans. She could not fail to see that but one possible way existed for her to 
retain control of them, and, of course, that 
was the very way she avoided. The 
Madrid authorities thought tliey did a 
wise thing when they secured control of 
the polls, and made sure that the dele- 
gates elected were their own. Schools, 
sewerage, roads, everything that could 
help the island were neglected and taxa- 
tion increased. The reforms promised to 
the insurgents upon condition of laying 
down their arms proved a delusion and a 
snare. Thus the "captain-general" had 
his name changed to " governor-gene- 
ral," but his tyrannical powers remained 
the same as before. The right of banish- 
ment was formally repealed, but the out- 
rages continued under another law that 
was equally effective, and so on to the end 
of the chapter. Once again the Cubans 
had been fooled by trusting to Spanish honor. They resolved that as soon as 
arrangements could be effected, they would set another insurrection on foot, which 
would be fought out to the death or until independence was secured. 

Several important ends were accomplished by the Ten Years' War. 
Slavery was abolished in 1886, and the island was divided into the j^resent six 
provinces. As in previous instances the United States was counted upon for 
the greatest material assistance in prosecuting the revolution. The spirit of 
adventure is always strong among Americans, and the filibustering enterprises 
appealed strongly to them. The spice of danger by which they were attended 
was their chief attraction. Our government was bound by treaty to prevent 
them, so far as it could, and it went to great expense in doing so. A number 




GEUERAI, MAXIMO OOMEZ. 

The Va^hinglou of Cuba is tlie title aiiplied to this hero, 
who. as Commander-in-Chief of the patriot army, made 
Cuban liberty possible. 



504 ADMINISTRATION OF McKINLEY. 

of expeditions were unable to get away from New York, but others escaped tbe 
vigilance of officials, and landed guns, ammunition, and men at different points 
on the island. One of the gi'eatest helps in this unlawful business was the dis- 
honesty of the officials employed by Spain to prevent the landing of supplies 
and men. There was never any difficulty in bribing these officers, who stumbled 
over one another in their eagerness to be bribed. 

THE LAST CUBAN REVOLUTION LAUNCHED. 

Meanwhile, the leaders in the former late revolt were consulting upon the 
best steps to launch the new revolution. Maximo Gomez was living in San 
Domingo, and, when he was offered the command of the revolutionary forces, he 
promptly accepted the responsibility. The offer came to him through Jose 
Marti, the head of the organization. 

The grim veterans were resolute in their purpose. After studying the 
(Situation, they agreed that a general ujjrising should be set on foot in all the 
provinces on February 24, 1895. It was impossible to do this, but the standard 
of revolt was raised on the date named in three of the provinces. 

One Spanish official read truly the meaning of the signs. He was Calleja, 
the captain-general. Though the revolt in the province of Santiago de Cuba 
looked trifling, he knew it was like a tiny blaze kindled in the dry prairie 
grass. He wished to act liberally toward the insurgents, but the blind govern- 
ment at Madrid blocked his every step. Since it had played the fool from the 
beginning, it kept up the farce to the end. They ordered Calleja to stamp out 
the rebellion, and he did his utmost to obey orders. 

Could the royal and insui-gent forces be brought to meet in fair combat, 
the latter would have been crushed out of existence at the first meeting. But 
the insurgent leaders were too shrewd to risk anything of that nature. They 
resumed their guerrilla tactics, striking hard blows, here, there, anywhere that 
the chance offered, and then fleeing into the woods and mountains before the 
regulars could be brought against them. 

Such a style of warfare is always cruel and accompanied by outrages of a 
shocking character. The Cubans were as savage in their methods as the 
Spaniards. They blew up bridges and railroad trains with dynamite, regard- 
less of the fact that, in so doing, it was the innocent instead of the guilty who 
Buffered. They burned the sugar cane, destroyed the toba<?co and coffee 
plantations, and impoverished the planters in order to shut off the revenues of 
Spain and deprive her forces of their needed supplies ; they spread desolation 
and ruin everywhere, in the vain hope that the mother country could thus be 
brought to a realizing sense of the true situation. 

But Spain was deaf and blind. She sent thousands of soldiers across the 



THE LAST CUBAN REVOLUTION LAUNCHED. 



505 



Atlantic, including the members of the best families in the kingdom, to die in 
the pestilential lowlands of Cuba, while trying to stamp out the fires of revolu- 
tion that continually grew and spread. 

The island was cursed by three political parties, each of which was 
strenuous in the maintenance of its views. The dominant party of course was 
the loyalists, who held all the offices and oj^posed any compromise with the 
insurgents. They were quite willing to make promises, with no intention of 
fulfilling them, but knew the Cubans could no longer be deceived. 

The second party was the insurgents, who, as has been shown, had 
"enlisted for the war," and were determined not to lay down their arms until 
independence was achieved. The autono- 
mists stood between these extremes, favor- 
ing home rule instead of independence, 
while admitting the misgovernment of 
Cuba. 

The Spaniards were determined to 
prevent the coming of Antonio Maceo, a 
veteran of the Ten Years' War, possessed 
of great courage and resources, who was 
living in Costa Rica. They knew he had 
been communicated with and his presence 
would prove a tower of strength to the in- 
surgents. Bodies of Spanish cavalry gal- 
loped along the coasts, on the alert to catch 
or shoot the rebel leader, while the officials 
closely watched all arrivals at the seaports 
for the feared rebel. 

Despite these precautions, Maceo and 
twenty-two comrades of the previous war 
effected a landing on the eastern end of the island. They were almost im- 
mediately discovered by the Spanish cavalry, and a fierce fight followed, in which 
several Cubans were killed. Maceo fought furiously, seemingly inspii-ed by the 
knowledge that he was again striking for the freedom of his country, and he 
came within a hair of being killed. He eluded his enemies, however, and, 
plunging into the thickets, started for the interior to meet the other insurgent 
leaders. The abundance of tropical fruits saved him from starving, and it was 
not long before he met with straggling bodies of his countrymen, who hailed 
his coming with enthusiasm. Recruits rapidly gathered around him, and he 
placed himself at the head of the ardent patriots. 

It was just ten days after the landing of Maceo that Gomez and Jos6 




JOSE MARTI. 

President of the Cuban Revolutionary Party. Led into 
ambush and killed by the Spaniards, May 19, 1895. 



506 



AD3IINISTRATI0N OF McKINLEY. 



Marti, coming from Santo Domingo, landed on the southern coast of Culsa. 
They had a lively time in avoiding the Spanish patrol, but succeeded in reach- 
ing a strong force of insurgents, and Gomez assumed his duties as commander- 
in-chief. Recruits were gathered to the number of several thousand, and 
Gomez and Marti started for the central provinces with the jiurpose of formally 
establishing the government. Marti was led astray on the road bj' a treacherous: 
guide and killed. 

Fully alive to the serious work before him, Captain-General Calleja called 
upon Spain for help in quelling the rebellion. She sent 25,000 troops to Cuba 
and Calleja was relieved by Field-Marshal Campos. Tliis was a poj)ular move, 

^:W-^wa--»; ' i for i*^^ was Campos who brought the Ten 
Years' War to a close, and it was gener- 
ally believed he would repeat his success. 
The tirst important act of Campos 
was to divide Cuba into zones, by means 
of a number of stronglj' guarded military 
lines, extending north and south across 
the narrower part of the island. They 
were called "trochas," and were expected 
to offer an impassable check to the in- 
surgents, who, thus confined within defi- 
nite limits, could be crushed or driven 
into the sea with little difficulty. 

The scheme, however, was a failure. 
The rebels crossed the trochas at will, 
kept up their guerrilla tactics, picked off 
the regulars, destroyed railroad trains, 
and went so far as to shoot the messen- 
gers who dared to enter their camp with proposals for making peace on other 
terms than independence. 

The Cubans were full, of hope. They had their old leaders with them, 
men who had led them in former campaigns and proven their courage and 
skill. Recruits flocked to their standards, until it has been estimated that by 
the close of the year fully 20,000 insurgents were in the field. With such 
strong commands, the leaders were able to attain several important successes. 
Considerable bodies of the regulars were defeated with serious losses, and, in 
one instance, Campos succeeded in saving himself and command oidy by the 
artillery he happened to have with him. 

Campos had prosecuted the war through civilized methods, and, therefore, 
fell into disfavor at home. He was not a representative Spanish commander, 




ANTONIO MACEO. 

LieutenanL-General in the Cuban Array. 



II 



THE LAST CUBAN BE VOLUTION LAUNCHED. 



:o7 



and was now superseded by General V^aleriano Weyler, who arrived in Havana 
in February, 1896. This man had as much liuman feeling in his heart as a 
wounded tiger. His policy was extermination. He established two jiowerful 
trochas across the island, but they proved as ineffective as those of Campos. 
Then he ordered the planters and their families, who were able to pick up 
a wretched living on their places, to move into the nearest towns, where they 
would be able to raise no more food for the insurgents. It mattered not to 
Weyler that neither could these reconcentrados raise any food for theme-elves, 




and therefore must starve: that was no concern of his. As he viewed it, starva- 
tion was the right method of ridding Cuba of those who yearned for its freedom. 
No pen can picture the horrors that followed. The woeful scenes sent a 
sliudder throughout the United States, and many good people demanded that 
the unspeakable crime should be checked by armed intervention. To do this 
meant war with Spain, but we were ready for that. A Congressional party 
visited Cuba in March, 1898, and witnessed the hideous suffering of the Cubans, 
of whom more than a hundred thousand had been starved to death, with scores 



508 ADMINISTRATION OF McKINLEY. 

still perishing daily. In referring to what they saw, Senator Proctor, of Ver- 
mont, said; "I shall refer to these horrible things no further. They are there. 
God pity me, I have seen them; they will remain in my mind forever, and 
this is almost the twentieth century. Christ died nineteen hundred years ago, 
and Spain is a Christian nation. She has set uj) more crosses in more lands^ 
beneath more skies, and under them has butchered more people than all the 
other nations of the earth combined. God grant that before another Christmas 
morning the last vestige of Sjjanish tyranny and oppression will have van- 
ished from the western hemisphere." 

Before this, the ferocious measures of Weyler brought so indignant a protest 
from our country that he was recalled, and his place taken by General Ranidii 
Blanco, who readied Havana in the autumn of 1897. Under him the indecisive 
fighting went on much as before, with no important advantage gained by either 
side. Friends of Cuba made ajDjieals in Congress for the granting of bellig- 
erent rights to the insurgents, but strict international law demanded that their 
government should gain a more tangible form and existence before such rights 
could be conceded. 

Matters were in this state of extreme tension when the blowing-up of the 
Maine occurred. Wliile riding quietly at anchor in the harbor of Havana, on 
the night of February 15, 1898, she was utterly destroyed by a terrific 
explosion, which killed 266 officers and men. The news thrilled the land with 
horror and rage, for it was taken at once for granted that the appalling crime 
had been committed by Spaniards, but the absolute proof remained to be 
brought forward, and the Americans, with their proverbial love of justice and 
fair-j^lay, waited for such proof. 

Competent men were selected for the investigation, and they spent three 
weeks in making it. They reported that it had been established beyond question 
that the Jfaine was destroyed by an outside explosion, or submarine mine, 
though they were unable to detei'mine who was directly responsible for the act. 

The insistence of Spain, of course, was that the explosion was accidental 
and resulted from carelessness on the i>aTt of Captain Sigsbee and his crew ; but 
it may be doubted whether any of the Spanish officials in Havana ever really 
held such a belief. While Spain herself was not directly responsible for the 
destruction of the war-ship and those who went down in her, it was believed that 
some of her officials had destroyed her. The displacement of the ferocious 
Weyler had incensed a good many of his friends, some of whom may have ex- 
pressed their views in this manner, one which, lia23pily for the credit of humanity, 
is exceedingly rare in the history of nations. 

The momentous events that followed are given in the succeeding chapters 











ADIVIINISTRATION 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

OK NlcKINLEY 
1897-1901. 



(CONT] NUED), 



THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR. 

Opening Incidents— Bombardment of JIatanzas— Dewey's Wonderful Victory at Mfwiila— Disaster to 
the Winslow at Cardenas Bay — The First American Loss of Life — Bombardment of San Juan, 
Porto Rico — The Elusive Spanish Fleet — Bottled-up in Santiago Harbor — Lieutenant Hobson's 
Daring Exploit— Second Bombardment of Santiago and Arrival of the Army — Gallant Work of the 
Rough Riders and the Regulars — Battles of San Juan and El Caney — Destruction of Cervera's 
Fleet — (Jeneral Shafter Reinforced in Front of Santiago — Surrender of the City — General Miles in 
Porto Rico — An Easy Conquest — Conquest of the Philippines — Peace Negotiations and Signing of 
J;he Protocol — Its Terms — Members of the National Peace Commission — Return of the Troops from 
Cuba and Porto Rico — The Peace Commission in Paris — Conclusion of its Work — Terms of the 
Treaty— Ratified by the Seuate. 



"stripping for the fight. 
Enough has already been stated to show the real cause of the war oetween 
the United States and Spain. It was, in brief, a war for humanity, for America 
could no longer close her ears to the wails of the dead and dying that lay 
perishing, as may be said, on her very doorsteps. It was not a war for con 
quest or gain, nor was it in revenge for the awful crime of the destruction of 
the Maine, though few nations would have restrained their wrath with such 
sublime patience as did our countrymen while the investigation was in progress. 
Yet it cannot be denied that this unparalleled outrage intensified the war fever 
in the United States, and thousands were eager for the opportunity to punish 
Sj^anish cruelty and treachery. Congress reflected this spirit when by a unani- 
mous vote it appropriated |50,000,000 "for the national defense." The War 
and Navy Departments hummed with the activity of recruiting, the prepara- 
tions of vessels and coast defenses, the purchase of war material and vessels a\ 
home, while agents were seut to Europe to procure all the war-ships in the market- 

(509) 



510 THE SPANTSH-AMERICAN WAR. 

Unlimited capital was at their command, and the question of price was never an \ 
obstacle. When hostilities impended the United States was unprepared for war, | 
but by amazing activity, energy, and skill the preparations were pushed and ' 
completed with a rapidity that approached the marvelous. 

War being inevitable, President McKinley sought to gain time for our | 
consular representatives to leave Cuba, where the situation daily and hourly j 
grew more dangerous. Consul Hyatt left Santiago on April 3d, but Consul- ' 
General Lee, always fearless, remained at Havana until April 10th, with the ' 
i&solution that no American refugees should be left behind, where very soon 
their lives would not be worth an hour's purchase. Lee landed in Key West ' 
April 11th, and on the same day President McKinley sent his message upon the I 
situation to Congress. On April 18th the two houses adopted the following: . 



Whereas, The abhorrent conditions which have existed for more than three years in the island 
of Cuba, so near our own borders, have shocked the moral sense of the people of the United States, 
have been a disgrace to Christian civilization, culminating, as they have, in the destruction of a United 
States battle-ship with 266 of its officers and crew, while on a friendly visit in the harbt)r of Havana, 
and cannot longer be endured, as has been set forth by the President of the United States in his 
message to Congress of April 11, 1898, upon which the action of Congress was invited; therefore. 

Resolved, Bj' the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in 
Congress assembled — 

First — That the people of the island of Cuba are, and of right ought to be, free and independent. 

Second — That it is the duty of the United States to demand, and the government of the United 
States does hereby demand, that the government of Spain at once relinquish its authority and govern- 
ment in the island of Cuba, and withdraw its land and naval forces from Cuba and Cuban waters. 

Third — That the President of the United States be, and he hereby is, directed and empowered to 
use the entire land and naval forces of the United States, and to call into the actual service of the 
United States the militia of the several States, to such extent as may be necessary to carry these reso- 
lutions into effect. 

Fourth — That the United States hereby disclaims any disposition or intention to exercise 
sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control over said island, except for the pacification thereof, and asserts its 
determination when that is completed to leave the government and control of the island to its people. 

This resolution was signed by the President April 20th, and a copy served 
on the Sjmnish minister, who demanded his passports, and immediately left 
Washington. The contents were telegraphed to United States INIinister Wood- 
ford at Madrid, with instructions to officially communicate them to the Spanish 
government, giving it until April 23d to answer. The Spanish authorities, 
however, anticipated this action by sending the American minister his passports 
on the morning of April 21st. This act was of itself equivalent to a declara- 
tion of war. 

The making of history now went forward with impressive swiftness. 

On April 22d the United States fleet was ordered to blockade Havana. 
On the 24th Spain declared war, and the United States Congress followed with a 



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THE BATTLE OF MANILA. 



513 



similar declaration on the 25th. The call for 75,000 volunteer troops was increased 
to 125,000 and subsequently to 200,000. The massing of men and stores was 
rapidly begun throughout the country. Within a month expeditions were organ- 
ized for various points of attack, war-vessels were bought, and ocean passenger 
steamers wei-e converted into auxiliary cruisers and transports. By the first 
of July about 40,000 soldiers had been sent to Cuba and the Philippine Islands. 
The rapidity with which preparations were made and the victories gained and 
the progress shown by the Americans at once astonished and challenged the 
admiration of foreign nations, who had regarded America as a country unpre- 
pared for war by land or sea. On 
April 27tli, following the declaration 
of war on the 25th, Admiral Samp- 
son, having previously blockaded the 
harbor of Havana, was reconnoiter- 
ing with three vessels in the vicinity 
of Matanzas, Cuba, when he dis- 
covered the Spanish forces building 
earthworks, and ventured so close 
in his efforts to investigate the same 
that a challenge shot was fired from 
the fortification, Rubal Cava. Ad- 
miral Sampson quickly formed the 
New York, CinciJinatl, and Puritan 
into a triangle and opened fire with 
their eight-inch guns. The action 
was very spirited on both sides for 
the space of eighteen minutes, at the 
expiration of which time the Spanish 
batteries were silenced and the earth- 
works destroyed, without casualty on 
the American side, though two shells 
burst dangerously near the New York. The last shot fired by the Americans, 
was from one of the Puritan's thirteen-inch guns, which landed with deadly 
accuracy in the very centre of Rubal Cava, and, exploding, completely 
destroyed the earthworks. This was the first action of the waXf though it 
could hardly be dignified by the name of a battle. 




ABMIBAIj GEOEGE DE"WEY. 



THE BATTLE OF MANILA. 

It was expected that the next engagement would be the bombardment of 
Morro Castle, at Havana. But it is the unexpected that often hajjpens in wW. 



514 THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR. 

In the Philippine Islands, on the other side of the world, the first real battle — 
one of the most remarkable in history — was next to occur. 

On April 25th the following dispatch of eight potent words was cabled to 
Commodore Dewey on the coast of China : " Capture or destroy the Spanish 
squadron at Manila." "Never," says James Gordon Bennett, "were instructions 
more effectively carried out. Within seven hours after arriving on the scene of 
action nothing remained to be done." It was on the 27tli that Dewey sailed 
from Mirs Bay, China, and on the night of the SOtli he lay before the entrance 
of the harbor of Manila, seven hundred miles away. Under the cover of dark- 
ness, with all lights extinguished on his shi^is, he daringly steamed into this 
unknown harbor, which he believed to be strewn with mines, and at daybreak 
engaged the Spanish fleet. Commodore Dewey knew it meant everything for 
him and his fleet to win or lose this battle. He was in the enemy's country. 
7,000 miles from home. The issue of this battle must mean victory, Spanish 
dungeons, or the bottom of the ocean. "Keep cool and obey orders" was the 
signal he gave to his fleet, and then came the order to fire. The Americans 
had seven ships, the Olympia, Baltimore, Raleigh, Petrel, Concord, Boston, and 
the dispatch-boat McCullough. The Spaniards had eleven, the Reina Christina, 
Castilla, Don Antonio de Ulloa, Isla de Luzon, Ma de Cuba, General Lezo. 
Marquis de Duero, Cano, Velasco, Isla de Mindanao, and a transport. 

From the beginning Commodore Dewey fought on the offensive, and, after 
the manner of Nelson and Farragut, concentrated his fire upon the strongest 
ships one after another with terrible execution. The Spanish ships were inferior 
to his, but there were more of them, and they were under the protection of the 
land batteries. The fire of the Americans was especially noted for its terrific 
rapidity and the wonderful accuracy of its aim. The battle lasted for about 
five hours, and resulted in the destruction of all the Spanish ships and the 
silencing of the land batteries. The Spanish loss in killed and wounded was 
estimated to be fully one thousand men, while on the American side not a ship 
was even seriously damaged and not a single man was killed outright, and only- 
six were wounded. More than a month after the battle. Captain Charles B. 
Gridley, Commander of the Oli/mjna, died, though his death was the result 
of an accident received in the discharge of his duty during the battle, and not 
from a wound. On May 2d Commodore Dewey cut the cable connecting 
Manila with Hong Kong, and destroyed the fortifications at the entrance of 
Manila Bay, and took possession of the naval station at Cavite. This was to 
prevent communication between the Pliilippine Islands and the government at 
Madrid, and necessitated the sending of Commodore Dewey's official account of 
the battle by the dispatch-boat 3IcCullough to Hong Kong, whence it was 
cabled to the United States. After its receipt, May 9th, both Houses adopted 



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516 THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR. 

resolutioriG of congratulation to Commodore Dewey and his officers and men for 
their gallantry at Manila, voted an appropriation for medals for the crew and a 
fine sword for the gallant Commander, and also passed a bill authorizing the 
President to appoint another rear-admiral, which honor was promjitly conferred 
upon Commodore Dewey, accompanied by the thanks of the President and of 
the nation for the admirable and heroic services rendered his country. 

The Battle oi Manila must ever remain a monument to the daring and 
courage of Admiral Dewey. However unevenly matched the two fleets 
may have been, the world agrees with the eminent foreign naval critic who 
declared: "This complete victory was the product of forethought, cool, well- 
balanced judgment, discipline, and bravery. It was a magnificent achievement, 
and Dewey will go down in history ranking with John Paul Jones and Lord 
Nelson as a naval hero." 

Admiral Dewey might have taken possession of the city of Manila imme- 
diately. He cabled the United States that he could do so, but the fact remained 
that he had not sufficient men to care for his ships and at the same time effect a 
successful landing in the town of Manila. Therefore he chose to remain on his 
ships, and though the city was at his mercy, he refrained from a bombardment 
because he believed it would lead to a massacre of the Spaniards on the part of 
the insurgents surrounding the city, which it would be beyond his power to stop. 
This humane manifestation toward the conquered foe adds to the lustre of the 
hero's crown, and at the same time places the seal of greatness u2:)on the brow 
of the victor. He not only refrained from bombarding the city, but received 
and cared for the wounded Spaniards upon his own vessels. Thus, while he did 
all that was required of him without costing his country the life of a single 
citizen, he manifested a spirit of humanity and generosity toward the vanquished 
foe fully in keeping with the sympathetic spirit which involved this natiim in 
the war for humanity's sake. 

The Battle of Manila further demonstrated that a fleet with heavier guns is 
virtually invulnerable in a campaign with a squadron bearing lighter metal, 
however gallantly the crew of the latter may fight. 

Before the Battle of Manila it was recognized that the government had 
serious trouble on its hands. On May 4th President McKinley nominated ten 
new Major-Generals, including Thomas H. Wilson, Fitzhugh Lee, Wm. J, 
Sewell (who was not commissioned), and Joseph Wheeler, from private life, 
and promoted Brigadier-Generals Breckinridge, Otis, Coppinger, Shafter, 
Graham, Wade, and Merriam, from the regular army. The organization 
and mobilization of troops was promptly begun and rapidly pushed. Meantime 
our naval vessels were actively cruising around the Island of Cuba, expecting 
the appearance of the Spanish fleet. 



THE BOMBARDMENT OF SAN JUAN. 



517 



On May 11th the gunboat Wilmington, revenue-cutter Hudson, and the 
torpedo-boat Wmsloiv entered Cardenas Bay, Cuba, to attack the defenses and 
three small Spanish gunboats that had taken refuge in the harbor. The Winslow 
being of light draft took the lead, and when within eight hundred yards of the 
fort was fired upon with disastrous effect, being struck eighteen times and ren- 
dered helpless. For more than an hour the frail little craft was at the mercy 
of the enemy's batteries. The revenue-cutter Hudson quickly answered her 
signal of distress by coming to the rescue, and as she was in the act of drawing 
the disabled boat away a shell from the enemy burst on the Winslow's deck, 
killing three of her crew outright and wounding many more. Ensign Worth 




CAMP SCENE AT CHICKAMAUGA. 

Bagley, of the Winslow, who had 'recently entered active service, was one of the 
killed. He was the first officer who lost his life in the war. The same shell 
badly wounded Lieutenant Bernadou, Commander of the boat. The Hudson, 
amidst a rain of fire from tlie Spanish gunboats and fortifications, succeeded in 
towing the Winslow to Key West, where the bodies of the dead were prepared 
for burial and the vessel was placed in repair. On May 12th the First Infantry 
landed near Port Cabanas, Cuba, with supplies for the insurgents, which they 
succeeded in delivering after a skirmish with the Spanish troops. This was the 
first land engagement of the war. 

On the same date Admiral Sampson's squadron arrived at San Juan, Porto 
Rico, whither it had gone in the expectation of meeting with Admiral Cervera's 



518 THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR. 

fleet, which had sailed westward from the Cape Verde Islands on April 29tli, 
after Portugal's declaration of neutrality. The Spanish fleet, however, did not 
materialize, and Admiral Sampson, while on the ground, concluded it would be 
well to draw the fire of the forts that he might at least judge of their strength 
and efficiency, if indeed he should not render them incapable of assisting the 
Spanish fleet in the event of its resorting to this port at a later period. Accord- 
ingly, Sampson bombarded the batteries defending San Juan, inflicting much 
damage and sustaining a loss of two men killed and six wounded. The loss of 
the enemy is not known. The American war-ships sustained only trivial in- 
juries, but after the engagement it could be plainly seen that one end of Morro 
Castle was in ruins. The Cabras Island fort was silenced and the San Carlos 
battery was damaged. No shots were aimed at the city by the American fleet. 
Deeming it unnecessary to wait for the Spanish war-ships in the vicinity of 
San Juan, Sampson withdrew his squadron and sailed westward in the hope of 
finding Cervera's fleet, which was dodging about the Caribbean Sea. First it 
was heard of at the French island, Martinique, whence after a short stay it 
sailed westward. Two days later it halted at the Dutch island, Curagoa, for 
coal and supplies. After leaving this point it was again lost sight of Then 
began the chase of Commodore Schley and Admiral Sampson to catch the 
fugitive. Schley, with his flying squadron, sailed from Key West around the 
western end of Cuba, and Sampson kept guard over the Windward and other 
passages to the east of the island. It was expected that one or the other of these 
fleets would encounter the Spaniard on the open sea, but in this they were mis- 
taken. Cervera was not making his way to the Mexican shore on the west, as 
some said, nor was he seeking to slip through one of the passages into the 
Atlantic and sail home to Spain, nor attack Commodore Watson's blockading 
vessels before Havana, according to other expert opinions expressed and widel}'^ 
published. For many days the hunt of the war-ships went on like a fox-chase. 
On May 21st Commodore Schley blockaded Cienfuegos, supposing that Cervera flII 
was inside the harbor, but on the 24th he discovered his mistake and sailed to 
Santiago, where he lay before the entrance to the harbor for three days, not know- 
ing whether or not the Spaniard was inside. On May 30th it was positively dis- 
covered that he had Cervera bottled up in the narrow harbor of Santiago. He 
had been there since the 19th, and had landed 800 men, 20,000 Mauser rifles, a ^1 
great supply of ammunition, and four great guns for the defense of the city. 

OPERATIONS AGAINST SANTIAGO. 

On May 31st Commodore Schley opened fire on the fortifications at the 
mouth of the harbor, which lasted for about half an hour. This was for the 
purpose of discovering the location and strength of the batteries, some of which 



OPERATIONS AGAINST SANTIAGO. 



)19 



were concealed, and in this he was comi^letely successful. Two of the batteries 
were silenced, and the flagship of the Spaniards, which took part in the engage- 
ment, was damaged. The Americans received no injury to vessels and no loss 
of men. On June 1st Admiral Sampson arrived before Santiago, and relieved 
Commodore Schley of the chief command of the forces, then consisting of six- 
teen war-ships. 

Admiral Sampson, naturally a cautious commander, suffered great appre- 
hension lest Cervera might slip out of the harbor and escape during tlie dark- 
n&s of the night or the progress of a storm, which would compel the blockading 
fleet to stand far off" shore. There was a point in the channel wide enough for 
only one war-ship to pass at a time, 
and if this could be rendered im- 
passable Cervera's doom would be 
sealed. How to reach and close this 
passage was the difficult problem to 
be solved. On either shore of the 
narrow channel stood frowning forts 
with cannon, and there were other 
fortifications to be passed before it 
could be reached. Young Lieutenant 
Richmond Pearson Hobson, a naval 
engineer, had attached himself to Ad- 
miral Sampson's flagship. New York, 
just before it sailed from Key West, 
and it was this young man of less 
than thirty years who solved the pro- 
blem by a plan originated by Admiral 
Sampson, which he executed with 
a heroic daring that finds perhaps no 
parallel in all naval history. At three 
o'clock A. M., June 3d, in company 
with seven volunteers from the AW York and other ships, he took theUnited States 
collier ITerrhnac, a large vessel with 600 tons of coal on board, and started with 
the purpose of sinking it in the channel. The chances were ten to one that the 
batteries from the forts would sink the vessel before it could reach the narrow 
neck, and the chances were hardly one in one hundred that any of the men on 
board the collier would come out of this daring attempt alive. The ship had 
hardly started when the forts opened fire, and amid the thunder of artillery and 
a rain of steel and bursting shells the boat with its eight brave heroes held on 
its way, as steadily as if they knew not their danger. The channel was reached. 




BICHMOND PEAKSON HOBSON. 



520 THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR. 

and tlie boat turned across the channel. The sea-doors were opened and tor- 
pedoes exploded by the intrepid crew, sinking the vessel almost instantly, but 
not in the j^osition desired. As the ship went down the men, with side-arms 
buckled on, took to a small boat, and, escape being impossible, they surrendered 
to the enemy. It seems scarcely less than a miracle that any of the eight men 
escaped, yet the fact remained that not one of them was seriously injured. The 
Spaniards were so impressed with this act of bravery and heroism that they 
treated the prisoners with the utmost courtesy, confined them in Morro Castle, 
and Admiral Cervera promptly sent a special officer, under a flag of truce, to 
inform Admiral Sampson of their safety. The prisoners were kept confined in 
Morro Castle for some days, when they were removed to a place of greater safety, 
where they were held until exchanged on July 7th. 

THE SECOND BOMBARDMENT OF SANTIAGO AND THE COMING OF THE ARMY. 

On the 6th of June the American fleet under Admiral Samjjson bombarded 
the forts of Santiago for about three hours. The gunners were all instructed, 
however, to spare Morro Castle lest they should inflict injury upon Hobson and 
his heroic companions, who were then confined within its walls. Nearly all of 
the fortifications at the entrance of the harbor were silenced. An examination 
after the fleet had withdrawn revealed the fact that no lives were lost on the 
American side, and none of the vessels were seriously injured. The Spanish 
ship Reina Mercedes was sunk in the harbor, she being the only ship from the 
enemy's fleet which ventured within the range of the American's guns. 

The danger of entering the narrow harbor in the face of Cervera's fleet 
rendered it necessary to take the city by land, and the government began pre- 
parations to send General Shafter with a large force from Tampa to aid the fleet 
in reducing the city. Some 15,000 men, including the now famous Rough 
Riders of New York, were hurried upon tiansports, and under the greatest con- 
voy of gunboats, cruisers, and battle-ships which ever escorted an army started 
for the western end of the island of Cuba. 

But the honor of making the first landing on Cuban soil belongs to the 
marines. It was on June the 10th, a few days before the army of General 
Shafter sailed from Tampa, that a landing was effected by Colonel Huntington's 
six hundred marines at Caimanera, Guantanamo Bay, some distance east of 
Santiago. The object of this landing was twofold : first, to secure a place where 
our war-ships could safely take on coal from colliers, and, second, to unite if pos- 
sible with the insurgents in harassing the Spaniards until General Shafter's army 
could arrive. Furthermore, Guantanamo Bay furnished the American ships a 
safe harbor in case of storm. 

In the whole history of the war few more thrilling passages are to be 



I 



SECOND BONBARDMENl OF SANTIAGO. 



621 



found tlian the record of this brave band's achievements. The place of landing 
was a low, round, bush-covered hill on the eastern side of the bay. On the 
crest of the hill was a small clearing occupied by an advance post of the 
Spanish array. When the marines landed and began to climb the hill, the 
enemy, with little resistance, retreated to the woods, and the marines were soon 
occujjying the cleared space abandoned by them. They had scarcely begun to 
compliment themselves on their easy victory when they discovered that the 
retreat had only been a snare to lure them into the open space, while unfor- 
tunately all around the clearing the woods grew thick, and their unprotected 
position was also overlooked by a range of higher hills covered with a dense 
undergrowth. Thus the Spanish were 
able under cover of the bushes to 
creep close up to our forces, and they 
soon began to fire upon them from the 
higher ground of the wooded range. 
The marines replied vigorously to the 
fire of their hidden foe, and thus con- , 
tinned their hit-and-miss engagement 
for a period of four days and nights, 
with only occasional intermissions. 
PerhajDS the poor mai'ksmanship of the 
Spaniards is to be thanked for the 
fact that they were not utterly anni- 
hilated. On the fourth day the Span- 
ish gave up the contest and aban- 
doned the field. 

Major Henry C. Cochrane, second 
in command, states that he slept only 
an hour and a half in the four days, 
and that many of his men became so 
exhausted that they fell asleep stand- 
ing on their feet with their rifles in 
their hands. It is remarkable that during the four days the Americans lost only 
six killed and about twenty wounded. The Spaniards suffered a loss several times 
as great, fifteen of them having been found by the Americans dead on the field. 
It is not known how many they carried away or how many were wounded. 




MAJOK-GEWEEAL FITZHUGH LEE. 



THE LANDING OF SHAFTER S ARMY. 

On June 13th troops began to leave Tampa and Key West for operations 
against Santiago, and on June 20th the transports bearing them arrived off that 



53-2 



THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR. 



city. Two days later General Sliafter landed his army of 16,000 soldiers at 
Daiquiri, a short distance east of the entrance to the harbor, with the loss of 
only two men, and they by accident. Before the coming of the troops the 
Spanish had evacuated the village of Daiquiri, which is a little inland from the 
anchorage bearing the same name, and set fire to the town, blowing up two 
magazines and destroying the railroad round-house containing several locomotives. 
As the transports netired the landing-place Sampson's ships opened fire upon 
Juragua, engaging all the forts for about six miles to the west. This was done 
to distract the attention of the Spanish from the landing soldiers, and was 
entirely successful. After the forts were silenced the New Orleans and several 

gunboats shelled the woods in ad- 
vance of the landing troops. The 
soldiers went ashore in full fiohting 
trim, each man carrying thirty-six 
rations, two hundred rounds of am- 
munition for his rifle, and a shelter- 
tent. 

While the troops were landing 
at Daiquiri, the battle-ship Texas, 
hitherto considered as an unfortu- 
nate ship by the attaches of the navy, 
com2:)letely changed her reputation 
and distinguished herself by assail- 
ing and silencing, unaided, the 
Spanish battery La Socapa at Santi- 
ago, which had hitherto withstood 
the attacks against it, though all the 
ships of Commodore Schley's com- 
mand had twice fiercely bombarded 
it without result. Captain Philip 
and his men were complimented in 
warm terms of praise by Admiral Sampson. The Texas was struck but once, 
and that by the last shot from the Spanish fort, killing one man and wounding 
eight others, seriously damaging the ship. 

THE VICTORY OF THE ROUGH RIDERS. 

On June 24th the force under General Shafter reached Juragua, and the 
battle by land was now really to begin. It was about ten miles out from San- 
tiago, at a point known as La Guasima. The country was covered with high 
grass and chaparral, and in tliis and on the wooded hills a strong force of 




HEAR-ADMIRAL "WILLIAM T. SAMPSON. 



THE VICTORY OF THE ROUGH RIDERS. 



523 



Spaniards was hidden. Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt's Rough Riders, tech« 
nically known as the First Volunteer Cavalry, under command of Colonel 
Wood, were in the fight, and it is to their bravery and dash that the glory of 
the day chiefly belongs. Troops under command of General Young had been 
sent out in advance, with the Rough Riders on his flank. There were about 
1,200 of the cavalry in all, including the Rough Riders and the First and 
Tenth Regulars. They encountered a body of two thousand Spaniards in a 
thicket, whom they fought dismounted. The volunteers were especially eager 
for the fight, and, perhaps due somewhat to their own imprudence, were led into 
an ambuscade, as perfect as was ever 
planned by an Indian. The main 
body of the Spaniards was posted on 
a hill approached by two heavily 
wooded slopes and fortified by two 
blockhouses, flanked by intrench- 
ments of stones and fallen trees. At 
the bottom of these hills run two 
roads, along one of which the Rough 
Riders marched, and along the other 
eight troops of the Eighth and Tenth 
Cavalry, under General Young. 
These roads are little more than gul- 
lies, very narrow, and at places al- 
most impassable. Nearly half a 
mile separated Roosevelt's men from 
the Regulars, and it was in these 
trails that the battle began. 

For an hour they held their 
position in the midst of an unseen 
force, which poured a perfect hail of 
bullets upon them from in front and on both sides. At length, seeing that theii 
only way of escape was by dashing boldly at the hidden foe. Colonel Wood took 
command on the right of his column of Rough Riders, placing Lieutenant- 
Colonel Roosevelt at the left, and thus, with a rousing yell, they led their soldiers 
in a rushing charge before which the Spaniards fled from the hills and the vic- 
torious assailants took the blockhouses. The Americans had sixteen killed and 
fifty-two wounded, forty-two of the casualties occurring to the Rough Riders and 
twenty-six among the Regulars. It is estimated that the Spanish killed were 
nearly or quite one hundred. Thirty-seven were found by the Americans dead 




THEODOHE ROOSEVELT. 



524 THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR. 

on the ground. They had carried off their wounded, and doubtless thought! 
they had taken most of the killed away also. 



I 



PREPARING FOR THE ASSAULT UPON SANTIAGO. 

The victory of the Rough Riders and the Regulars at La Guasima, though 
so dearly bought, stimulated the soldiers of the whole army with the spirit of 
war and the desire for an opportunity to join in the conquest. They had not 
long to wait. The advance upon Santiago was vigorously prosecuted on the 
land side, while the ships stood guard over the entrapped Spanish Admiral 
Cervera in the harbor, and, anon, shelled every fort that manifested signs of 
activity. On June 25th, Sevilla, within sight of Santiago, was taken by General 
Chaffee, and an advance upon the city was planned to be made in three columns 
by way of Altares, Firmeza, and Juragua. General Garcia with 5,000 Cuban 
insurgents had placed himself some time before at the command of the American 
leader. On the 28th of June another large expedition of troops was landed, so 
that the entire force under General Shafter, including the Cuban allies, num- 
bered over 22,000 fighting men. 

The enemy fell back at all points until the right of the American column 
yas within three miles of Santiago, and by the end of June tlie two armies had 
well-defined positions. The Spanish intrenchments extended around the city, 
being kept at a distance of about three and one-half miles from the corporation 
limits. The trenches were occupied by about 12,000 Soanish soldiers, and there 
were some good fortifications along the line. 

It was the policy of General Shafter to distribute his forces so as to face 
this entire line as nearly as possible. A week was consumed, after the landing 
was completed, in making these arrangements and in sending forward the 
artillery, during which time (he battle of La Guasima, referred to, with some 
minor affairs, had occurred. Meantime the ships of Admii-al Sampson had 
dragged up the cables and connected them by tap-wires with Shafter's head- 
quarters, thus establishing communication directly with Washington from the 
scene of battle. 

THE BATTLES OF SAN JUAN AND EL CANEY. 

The attack began July 1st, involving the whole line, but the main struggle 
occurred opposite the left centre of the column on the heights of San Juan, and 
the next greatest engagement was on the right of the American line at the little 
town of El Caney. These two points are several miles apart, the city of San- 
tiago occupying very nearly the apex of a triangle of which a line connecting 
these two positions would form the base. John R. Church thus described the 
battles of July 1st and 2d : 



f 



THE BATTLES OF SAN JUAN AND EL CANEY. 525 

" El Caney was taken by General Lawton's men after a sharp contest and 
severe loss on both sides. Here as everywhere there were blockhouses and 
trenches to be carried in the face of a hot fire from Mauser rifles, and the rifles 
were well served. The jungle must disturb the aim seriously, for our men did 
not suffer severely while under its cover, but in crossing clearings the rapid fire 
of the repeating rifles told with deadly effect. The object of the attack on El 
Caney was to crush the Spanish lines at a point near the city and allow us to 
gain a high hill from which the place could be bombarded if necessary. In all 
of this we were entirely successful. The engagement began at 6.40 A. m., and 
by 4 o'clock the Spaniards were forced to abandon the place and retreat toward 
their lines nearer the city. The fight was opened by Capron's battery, at a 
range of 2,400 yards, and the troops engaged were Chaffee's brigade, the 
Seventh, Twelfth, and Seventeenth Infantry, who moved on Caney from the 
east; Colonel Miles' brigade of the First, Fourth, and Twenty-fifth Infantry, 
operating from the south ; while Ludlow's brigade, containing the Eighth and 
Twenty-second Infantry and Second Massachusetts, made a detour to attack 
from the southwest. The Spanish force is thought to have been 1,500 to 2,000 
strong. It certainly fought our men for nine hours, but of course had the 
advantage of a fort and strong intrenchments. 

" The operations of our centre were calculated to cut the communications 
of Santiago with El Morro and permit our forces to advance to the bay, and the 
principal effort of General Linares, the Spanish commander in the field, seems 
to have been to defeat this movement. He had fortified San Juan strongly, 
throwing up on it intrenchments that in the hands of a more determined force 
would have been impregnable. 

" The battle of San Juan was opened by Grimes' battery, to which the 
enemy replied with shrapnell. The cavalry, dismounted, supported by Haw- 
kins' brigade, advanced up the valley from the hill of El Pozo, forded several 
streams, where they lost heavily, and deployed at the foot of the series of hills 
known as San Juan under a sharp fire from all sides, which was exceedingly 
annoying because the enemy could not be discerned, owing to the long range 
and smokeless jDowder. They were under fire for two hours before the charge 
could be made and a position reached under the brow of the hill. It was not 
until nearly 4 o'clock that the neighboring hills were occupied by our troops 
and the final successful effort to crown the ridge could be made. The obstacles 
interposed by the Spaniards made these charges anything but the 'rushes' 
which war histories mention so often. They were slow and painful advances 
through difficult obstacles and a withering fire. The last 'charge' continued 
an hour, but at 4.45 the firing ceased, with San Juan in our possession. 

" The Spaniards made liberal use of barbed-wire fencing, which proved to 



526 THE SPANISH- AMERICAN WAR. 

be so eflfective as a stop to our advance that it is likely to take its place among 
approved defensive materials in future wars. It was used in two ways: Wires 
were stretched near the ground to trip up our men when on the run. Beyond 
them were fences in parallel lines, some being too high to be vaulted over. 

" The object of our attack was a blockhouse on the top of the iiill of San 
Juan, guarded by trenches and the defenses spoken of, a mile and a half long. 
Our troops advanced steadily against a hot fire maintained by the enemy, who 
used their rifles with accuracy, but did not cling to their works stubbornly when 
we reached them. San Juan was carried in the afternoon. The attack on 
Aguadores was also successful, though it was not. intended to be more than a 
feint to draw off men who might otherwise have increased our difficulties at San 
Juan. By nightfall General Shafter was able to telegraph that he had carried 
all the outworks and was within three-quarters of a mile of the city. 

"Though the enemy's lines were broken in the principal places, they 
yielded no more than was forced from them, and the battle was resumed on the 
2d. The last day saw our left flank resting on tlie bay and our lines drawn 
around the city within easy gun-fire. Fears were entertained that the enemy 
would evacuate the place, and the right flank was pushed around to the north 
and eventually to the northwest of the city." 

In the fight at San Juan General Linares, commanding the Spanish forces 
in Santiago, was severely wounded, and transferred the command to General 
Jos^ Toral, second in authority. 

THE DESTRUCTION OF CERVERA's FLEET. 

During the previous two days' fight by land the fleet of Admiral Cervera 
in Santiago harbor had taken an active part in shelling our positions, with no 
inconsiderable effect; and General Shafter, largely on this account, had about 
despaired of taking the city, with the force at his command. In fact, he went 
so far on the morning of July 3d as to telegraph Washington that his losses 
had been greatly underestimated, that he met with stronger resistance than 
he had anticipated, and was seriously considering falling back to a position five 
miles to the rear to await reinforcements. He was also anxious for an interview 
with Admiral Sampson. The fleet had been shelling the enemy during tlie two 
days' fight, but it was necessary that the navy and army should have an under- 
standing; and at 8.30 o'clock on Sunday morning Admiral Sampson with his 
flagship Nexv York steamed eastward for the purpose of conferring with the 

general. 

General Miles telegraphed General Shafter, in response to his request to 
hold his position, that he would be with him in a week with strong^ reinforce- 
ments; and he promptly started two expeditions, aggregating over 6,000 men, 



THE DESTRUCTION OF CERVERA'S FLEET. 



52( 



whicli readied Santiago on the 8tli and 10th respectively, in time to witness the 
closing engagements and surrender of the city. But fortune again favored our 
cause and completely changed the situation, unexpectedly to the American com- 
manders of the land and naval forces. 

It vs'as on Sunday morning, July 3d, just before Sampson landed to meet 
Shafter, that Admiral Cervera, in obedience to commands from his home 
government, endeavored to run his fleet past the blockading squadron of the 
Americans, with the result that all of his ships were destroyed, nearly 500 of 
his men killed and wotlnded, and himself and about 1,300 others were made 
prisoners. This naval engagement 
was one of the most dramatic and 
terrible in all the history of conflict 
upon the seas, and, as it was really 
the beginning of the end of what 
promised to be a long and terrible 
struggle, it was undoubtedly the most 
important battle of the war. 

It had been just one month, to 
a day, since Hobson sunk the Ilerri- 
mac at the harbor's mouth to keep 
Cervera in, and for nearly one month 
and a half the fleets of Schley and 
Sampson had lain, like watch-dogs 
before the gate, without for onf mo- 
ment relaxing their vigilance. The 
quiet of Sunday morning broodbd over 
the scene. Even the winds seemed 
resting from their labors and the sea 
lay smooth as glass. For two days 
before, July 1st and 2d, the fleets 

, ,, ,1,1 p po, • EEAK-ADMIRAL WINFIELD SCOTT SCHLEY. 

had bombarded the torts oi Santiago 

for the fourth time, and all the ships, except the Oregon, had steam down so 
low as to allow them a speed of only five knots an hour. At half-past nine 
o'clock the bugler sounded the call to quarters, and the Jackies appeared on 
deck rigged in their cleanest clothes for their regular Sunday inspection. On 
board the Texas the devout Captain Philip had sounded the trumpet-call to re- 
ligious services. In an instant a line of smoke was seen coming out of the 
harbor by the watch on the loiva, and from that vessel's yard a signal was run 
up — "The enemy is escaping to the westward." Simultaneously, from her 
bridge a six-pounder boomed on the still air to draw the attention of the other 




528 THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR. 

ships to her fluttering signal. On every vessel white masses were seen scram- 
bling forward. Jackies and firemen tumbled over one another rushing to their 
stations. Officers jumped into the turrets through manholes, dressed in their 
best uniforms, and captains rushed to their conning towers. There was no time 
to waste — scarcely enough to get the battle-hatches screwed on tight. Jingle, 
jingle, went the signal-bells in the engine-rooms, and "Steam! Steam!" the cap- 
tains cried through the tubes. Far below decks, in 125 to 150 degrees of heat, 
naked men shoveled in the black coal and forced drafts were put on. 

One minute after the lo^va fired her signal-gun she was moving toward the 
harbor. From under the Castle of Morro came Admiral Cervera's flagship, the 
Infanta llaria Teresa, followed by her sister armored cruisers, Almirante 
Oquende and Vizcaya — so much alike that they could not be distinguished at 
any distance. There was also the splendid Cristobal Colon, and after them all 
the two fine torpedo-boat destroyers, Pluton and Furor. The Teresa opened 
fire as she sighted the American vessels, as did all of her companions, and the 
forts from the heights belched forth at the same time. Countless geysers around 
our slowly approaching battle-ships showed where the Spanish shells exploded in 
the water. The Americans replied. Tlie battle was on, but at a long range of 
two or three miles, so that the secondary batteries could not be called into use ; 
but thirteen-inch shells from the Oregon and Indiana and the twelve-inch shells 
from the Texas and loiva were churning up the water around the enemy. At 
this juncture it seemed impossible for the Americans to head off" the Spanish 
cruisers from passing the western point, for they had come out of the harbor at 
a speed of thirteen and one-half knots an hour, for which the blockading fleet 
was not prepared. But Admiral Sampson's instructions were simple and well 
understood — "Should the enemy come out, close in and head him off"' — and 
every ship was now endeavoring to obey that standing command while ihey 
piled on coal and steamed up. 

Meanwhile the New York was far away to the eastward, and the direction 
of affairs was left to Commodore Schley. The exciting news was sent in all 
haste to Admiral Sampson, and the flagship sped swiftly back, but reached the 
scene too late to take part in the stirring event. 

It was not until the leading Spanish cruiser had almost reached the western 
point of the bay, and when it was evident that Cervera was leading his entire 
fleet in one direction, that the battle commenced in its fury. The Iowa and 
the Oregon headed straight for the shore, intending to ram if possil)le one or 
more of the Spaniards. The Indiana and the Texas were following, and the 
Brooklyn, in the endeavor to cut off" the advance ship, was headed straight for 
the western point. The little unprotected Gloucester steamed right across the 
harbor mouth and engaged the Oquendo at closer range than any of the other 



DESTRUCTION OF CERVERA'S FLEET. 



529 



ships, at the same time firing on the Furor and Pluton, which were rapidly 
approaching. 

It then became apparent that the Oregon and loxva could not ram, and that 
the Brooklyn could not head them off, as she had hoped, and, turning in a 
parallel course with them, a running fight ensued. Broadside after broadside 
came fast with terrific slaughter. The rapid-fire guns of the Iowa nearest the 
Teresa enveloped the former vessel in a mantle of smoke and flame. She was 
followed by the Oregon, Indiana, Texas, and Brooklyn, all pouring a rain of 
red-hot steel and exploding shell into the fleeing cruisers as they passed along in 
their desperate efibrt to escape. The 
Furor and Pluton dashed like mad 
colts for the Brooklyn, and Commo- 
dore Schley signaled — "Repel tor- 
pedo-destroyers." Some of the heavy 
ships turned their guns upon the 
little monsters. It was short work. 
Clouds of black smoke rising from 
their thin sides showed how seriously 
they suffered as they floundered in 
the sea. 

The Brooklyn and Oregon 
dashed on after the cruisers, fol- 
lowed by the other big shijjs, leaving 
the Furor and Pluton to the Glou' 
cester, hoping the Hew York, which 
was coming in the distance, would 
arrive in time to help her out if she 
needed it. The firing from the main 
and second batteries of all the bat- 
tle-ships — Oregon, Iowa, Texas — and 
the cruiser Brooklyn was turned upon 
the Vizcaya, Teresa, and Oquendo with such terrific broadsides and accuracy of 
aim that the Spaniards were driven from their guns repeatedly; but the officers 
gave the men liquor and drove them back, beating and sometimes shooting down 
those who weakened, without mercy; but under the terrific fire of the Americans 
the poor wretches were again driven away or fell mangled by their guns or 
stunned from the concussions of the missiles on the sides of their ships. 

Presently flames and smoke burst out from the Teresa and the Oquendo. 
The fire leaped from the port-holes ; and amid the din of battle and above it all 
rose the wild cheers of the Americans as both these splendid ships slowly reeled 




HEAB-ADMIHAL JOHN C. W^ATSON. 

Commander of the Blockading Fleet at Havana. 



530 THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR. 

like drunken men and headed for the shore. "They are on fire! We've finished 
them," shouted the gunners. Down came the Spanish flags. The news went 
all over the ships — it being commanded by Commodore Schley to keep every- 
one informed, even those far below in the fire-rooms — and from engineers and 
firemen in the hot bowels of the great leviathans to the men in the fighting-tops 
the welkin rang until the shi))s revfr])er;ited with exuberant cheers. 

This was 10.20 a. m. Previously, the two torpedo boats had gone down, 
and only two dozen of their 140 men survived, these having been picked up by 
the Gloucester, which plucky little unprotected "dare-devil," not content with 
the destruction she had courted and escaped only as one of the unexplainable 
mysteries of Spanish gunnery, was coming up to join the chase after bigger 
game ; and it was to Lieutenant Wainwright, her commander, that Admiral 
Cervera surrendered. The Blaine loas avenged. (Lieutenant Wainwright was 
executive officer on that ill-fated vessel when she was blown up February 15th.) 
Cervera was wounded, hatless, and almost naked when he was taken on board 
the Gloucester. Lieutenant Wainwright cordially saluted him and grasped him 
by the hand, saying, "I congratulate you. Admiral Cervera, upon as gallant a 
fight as was ever made upon the sea." He placed his cabin at the service of 
Cervera and his officers, while his surgeon dressed their wounds and his men 
did all they could for their comfort — Wainwright supplying the adzniral with 
clothing. Cervera was overcome with emotion, and the face of the old gray- 
bearded warrior was suffused in tears. Tlie Iowa and Indiana came up soon 
after the Gloucester and assisted in the rescue of the drowning Spaniards from 
the Oquendo and Teresa, after which they all hurried on after the vanishing 
Brooklyn and Oregon, which were pursuing the Vizcaya and Colon, the only 
two remaining vessels of Cervera's splendid fleet. From pursuer and pursued 
the smoke rose in volumes and the booming guns over the waters sang the song 
of destruction. 

In twenty-four minutes after the sinking of the Teresa and Oquendo, the 
Vizcaya, riddled by the Oregon's great shells and burning fiercely, hauled down 
her flag and headed for the shore, where she hung upon the rocks. In a dying 
effort she had tried to ram the Brooklyn, but the fire of the big cruiser was too 
hot for her. The Texas and the little Vixen were seen to be about a mile to the 
rear, and the Vizcaya was left to them and the loiva, the latter staying by her 
finally, while the Texas and Vixen followed on. 

It looked like a forlorn hope to catch the Colon. She was four and one- 
half miles away. But the Brooklyn and the Oregon were running like express 
trains, and the Texas sped after the fugitives with all her might. The chase 
lasted two hours. Firing ceased, and every power of the ship and the nerve of 
commodore, captains, and officers wei-e devoted to increasing the speed. Men 



DESTRUCTION OF CERVERA'S FLEET. 5;31 

from the guns, naked to the waist and perspiring in streams, were called on deck 
for rest and an airing. It was a grimy and dirty but jolly set of Jackies, and 
jokes were merrily cracked as they sped on and waited. Only the men in the 
fire-rooms were working as never before. It was their battle now, a battle of 
speed. At 12.30 it was seen the Americans were gaining. Cheers went up and 
all was made ready. " We may wing that fellow yet," said Commodore Schley, 
as he commanded Captain Clark to try a big thirteen-inch shell. "Remember 
the Maine " was flung out on a pennant from the mast-head of the Oregon, and 
at 8,500 yards she began to send her 1,000-pound shots shrieking over the 
Brooklyn, after the flying Spaniard. One threw tons of water on board the 
fugitive, and the Brooklyn a few minutes later with eight-inch guns began to 
pelt her sides. Everyone expected a game fight from the proud and splendid 
Colon with her smokeless powder and rapid-fire guns ; but all were surprised 
when, after a feeble resistance, at 1.15 o'clock her captain struck his colors and 
ran his ship ashore sixty miles from Santiago, opening her sea-valves to sink 
her after she had surrendered. 

Victory was at last complete. As the Brooklyn and Oregon moved upon 
the prey word of the surrender was sent below, and naked men poured out of 
the fire-rooms, black with smoke and dirt and glistening with perspiration, but 
wild with joy. Commodore Schley gazed down at the grimy, gruesome, joyous 
firemen with glistening eyes suspicious of tears, and said, in a husky voice, 
eloquent with emotion, " Tliose are the fellows wlio made this day." Then he 
signaled — "The enemy has surrendered." The Texas, five miles to the east, 
repeated the signal to Admiral Sampson some miles further away, coming at top 
speed of the Neiv York. Next the commodore signaled the admiral — "A 
glorious victory has been achieved. Details communicated later.'" And then, to 
all the ships, " This is a great day for our country," all of which were repeated 
by the Texas to the ships further east. The cheering was wild. Such a scene 
was never, perhaps, witnessed upon the ocean. Admiral Sampson arrived before 
the Colon sank, and placing the great nose of the New York against that vessel 
pushed her inta shallow water, where she sank, but was not entirely submerged. 
Thus perished from the earth the bulk of the sea power of Spain. 

The Spanish losses were 1,800 men killed, wounded, and made prisoners, 
and six ships destroyed or sunk, the property loss being about $12,000,000. 
The American loss was one man killed and three wounded, all from the Brooklyn, 
•a result little short of a miracle from the fact that the Brooklyn was hit thirty- 
six times, and nearly all the ships were struck more than once. 

The prisoners were treated with the utmost courtesy. Many of them were 
taken or rescued entirely naked, and scores of them were wounded. Their be- 
havior was manly and their fortitude won the admiration of their captors. 



532 



THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR. 



Whatever may be said of Spanish marksmanship, there is no discount on Spanish 
courage. After a short detention Cervera and his captured sailors were sent 
north to New Hampshire and thence to AnnapoHs, where they were held until 
released by order of President McKinley, August 31st. 



THREATENED BOMBARDMENT OF SANTIAGO AND FLIGHT OF THE REFUGEES. 

On July 3d, while the great naval duel was in progress upon the sea, 
General Shafter demanded the surrender of Santiago upon pain of bombard- 
ment. The demand was refused by General Toral, who commanded the forces 

after tlie wounding of General Lin- 
ares. General Shafter stated that 
he would postpone the bombardment 
until noon of July 5th to allow 
foreigners and non-combatants to 
get out of the city, and he urged 
General Toral in the name of hu- 
manity to use his influence and aid 
to facilitate the rapid departure of 
unarmed citizens and foreigners. 
Accordingly late in the afternoon of 
July 4th General Toral posted no- 
tices upon the walls of Santiago 
advising all women, children, and 
non-combatants that between five 
and nine o'clock on the morning of 
the 5th they might pass out by any 
gate of the city, all pilgrims going on 
foot, no carriages being allowed, and 
stating that stretchers would be pro- 
vided for the crippled. 

Promptly at five o'clock on the 
following morning a great line of pilgrims wound out of Santiago. It was no 
rabble, but well-behaved crowds of men and women, with great droves of chil- 
dren. About four hundred persons were carried out on litters. Many of the 
poorer women wore large crucifixes and some entered El Caney telling their 
beads. But there were many not so fortunate as to reach the city. Along the 
highroads in all directions thousands of families squatted entirely without food 
or slielter, and many deaths occurred among them. The Red Cross Society did 
much to relieve the suffering, but it lacked means of transporting sui)plies to 
the front. 




MAJOH-QENERAL WILLIAM K. SHAFTER. 



THE LAST BATTLE. 



533 



While the flag of truce was still flying on the morning of July 6th a com- 
munication was received from General Toral, requesting that the time of truce 
be further extended, as he wanted to comniunicate again with the Spanish 
government at Madrid concerning the surrender of the city; and, further, that 
the cable operators, who were Englishmen and had fled to El Caney with the 
refugees, be returned to the city that he might do so. General Shafter extended 
the truce until four o'clock on Sunday, July 10th, and the operators returned 
from El Caney to work the wires for General Toral. During all this time the 
refugees continued to throng the roads to Siboney and El Caney, until 20,000 
fugitives were congregated at the 
two points. It is a disgraceful fact, 
however, that while this truce was 
granted at the request of the Spanish 
general, it was taken advantage of 
by the troops under him to loot the 
city. Both Cuban and Spanish 
families suffered from their rapacity. 

THE LAST BATTLE AND THE SUR- 
RENDER OF THE CITY. 

On July 8th and 10th the two 
expeditions of General Miles arrived, 
reinforcing General Shafter's army 
with over 6,000 men. General 
Toral was acquainted with the fact 
of their presence, and General Miles 
urgently impressed upon him that 
further resistance could but result in 
a useless loss of life. The Spanish 
commander replied that he had not 
received permission to surrender, 
and if the Americans would not wait longer he could only obey orders of 
his government, and that he and his men would die fighting. Accordingly a 
joint bombardment by the army and navy was begun. The artillery reply 
of the Spaniards was feeble and spiritless, though our attack on the city was 
chiefly with artillery. They seemed to depend most upon their small arms, 
and returned the volleys fired from the trenches vigorously. Our lines were 
elaborately protected with over 22,000 sand-bags, while the Spaniards were 
protected with bamboo poles filled with earth. In this engagement the 
dynamite gun of the Kough Riders did excellent service, striking the enemy's 




MAJOK-GEWEBAL NELSON A. MILES. 



534 THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR. 

trenches aad blowing field-pieces into the air. The bombardment continued 
until the afternoon of the second day, when a flag of truce was displayed over 
the city. It was thought that General Toral was about to surrender, but 
instead he only asked more time. 

On the advice of General Miles, General Shafter consented to another 
truce, and, at last, on July 14th, after an interview with Generals Miles and 
Shafter, in which he agreed to give up the city on condition that the array 
would be returned to Sj)ain at the expense of America, General Toral surren- 
dered. On July 16th the agreement, with the formal approval of the Madrid 
and Washington governments, was signed in duplicate by the commissioners, 
each side retaining a copy. This event was accepted throughout the world as 
marking the end of the Spanish-American War. 

The conditions of the surrender involved the foUo.wing points: 

" (1) The 20,000 refugees at El Caney and Siboney to be sent back to the 
city. (2) An American infantry patrol to be posted on the roads surrounding 
the city and in the country between it and the Ara^-ican cavalry. (3) Our 
hospital corps to give attention, as far as possible, to the sick and wounded 
Spanish soldiers in Santiago. (4) All the Spanish troops in the province, 
except ten thousand men at Holguin, under command of General Luqiie, to 
come into the city and surrender. (5) The guns and defenses of the city to be 
turned over to the Americans in good condition. (6) The Americans to have 
full use of the Juragua Railroad, which belongs to the Spanish government. 
(7) The Spaniards to surrender their arms. (8) All the Spaniards to be con- 
veyed to Spain on board of American transports with the least possible delay, 
and be permitted to take portable church property with them." 

TAKING POSSESSION OF SANTIAGO AND RAISING THE AMERICAN FLAG. 

The formality of taking possession of the city yet remained to be done. 
To that end, immediately after the signing of the agreement by the commis- 
sioners. General Shafter notified General Toral that he would formally receive 
his surrender of the city the next day, Sunday, July 17th, at nine o'clock in the 
morning. Accordingly at about 8.30 a. m., Sunday, General Shafter, accom- 
panied by the commander of the American army, General Nelson A. Miles, 
Generals Wheeler and Lawton, and several officers, walked slowly down the 
hill to the road leading to Santiago. Under the great mango tree which had 
witnessed all the negotiations, General Toral, in full uniform, accompanied by 
200 Spanish officers, met the Americans. After a little ceremony in military 
manoeuvring, the two commanding generals faced each other, and General Toral, 
speaking in Spanish, said : 



GENEBAL SHAFTER'S ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE VICTORY. 535 



"Through fate I am forced to surrender to General Shafter, of the American 
army, the city and the strongholds of the city of Santiago." 

General Toral's voice trembled with emotion as he spoke the words giving 
up the town to his victorious enemy. As he finished speaking the Spanish 
officers presented arms. 

General Shafter, in reply, said: 

"I receive the city in the name of the government of the United States." 

The officers of the Spanish general then wheeled about, presenting arms, 
and General Shafter, with the American officers, cavalry and infantry, chosen 
for the occasion, passed into the city 
and on to the governor's palace, 
where a crowd, numbering 3,000 
persons, had gathered. As the great 
bell in the tower of the cathedral 
nearby gave the first stroke of twelve 
o'clock the American flag was run up 
from the flag-pole on the palace, and 
as it floated to the breeze all hats 
were removed by tlie spectators, 
while the soldiers presented arms. 
As the cathedral bell tolled the last 
stroke of the hour the military band 
began to play "The Star-Spangled 
Banner," which was followed by 
"Three Cheers for the Red, White, 
and Blue." The cheering of the 
soldiers were joined by more than 
half of the people, who seemed 
greatly pleased and yelled "Viva 
los Americanos.'' The soldiers along 
almost the whole of the American line could see and had watched with alter- 
nating silence and cheers the entire proceeding. 




QEWEEAL JOSEPH WHEELEH. 



GENERAL SHAFTER's ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE VICTORY. 

Having assigned soldiers to patrol and preserve order within the city, 
General Shafter and his staff returned to their quarters at camp, and the victor- 
ious commander, who two weeks before was almost disheartened, sent a dispatch 
announcing the formal surrender of Santiago. It was the first dispatch of the 
kind received at Washington from a foreign country for more than fifty years. 
The following extract from General Shafter's telegram sums up the situation : 



536 THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR. 

"I have the honor to announce that the American flag has been this 
instant, 12 noon, hoisted over the house of the civil government in the city of 
Santiago. An immense concourse of people was present, a squadron of cavalry 
and a regiment of infantry presenting arras, and a band playing national airs. 
A light battery fired a salute of twenty-one guns. 

"Perfect order is being maintained by the municipal government. The 
distress is very great, but there is little sickness in town, and scarcely any 
yellow fever. 

"A small gunboat and about 200 seamen left by Cervera have surrendered 
to me. Obstructions are being removed from the mouth of the harbor. 

"Upon coming into the city I discovered a perfect entanglement of 
defenses. Figliting as the Spaniards did the first day, it would have cost five 
thousand lives to have taken it. 

"Battalions of Spanish troops have been depositing arms since daylight in 
the armory, over which I have a guard. General Toral formally surrendered 
the plaza and all stores at 9 a. m. About 7,000 rifles, 600,000 cartridges, and 
many fine modern guns were given up. 

"This important victory, with its substantial fruits of conquest, was won 
by a loss of 1,593 men killed, wounded, and missing. Lawton, who had the 
severe fighting around El Caney, lost 410 men. Kent lost 859 men in the still 
more severe assault on San Juan and the other conflicts of the centre. The 
cavalry lost 285 men, many of whom fell at El Caney, and the feint at Agua- 
dores cost thirty-seven men. One man of the Signal Corps was killed and one 
wounded. Trying as it is to bear the casualties of the first fight, there can be 
no doubt that in a military sense our success was not dearly won." 

Thus within less than thirty days from the time Shafter's army landed 
upon Cuban soil he had received the surrender not only of the city of Santiago, 
but nearly the whole of the province of that name — or about one-tenth of the 
entire island. 

THE WAR IN PORTO RICO. 

It was General Miles' original plan after establishing a blockade of Cuban 
ports to open the war in Porto Rico, and make no general invasion of Cuba 
during the sickly season, but the enclosure of Cervera 's fleet in the harbor of 
Santiago changed the conditions and made it necessary to move a military force 
to that point before going elsewhere. 

Now that Santiago had surrendered, according to the original plan of 
General Miles, the attention of the army and navy was again turned to Porto 
Rico, and the work of fitting out expeditions to that island was begun at once. 
There were three expeditions sent. The first under General Miles sailed from 



THE WAR IN PORTO RICO. 537 

Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, July 21st; the second under General Ernst on the same 
day sailed from Charleston, S. C. ; the third under General Brooke embarked at 
Newport News on July 26th. All of these expeditions, aggregating about 
11,000 men, were convoyed by war-ships, and successfully landed. The first, 
under General Miles, reached Guanica at daylight on July 25th, where a 
Spanish force attemjited to resist their landing, but a few well-directed shells 
from the 3Iassachusetts, Gloucester, and Columbia soon put the enemy to flight. 
A party then went ashore and pulled down the Spanish flag from the block- 
house — the first trophy of war from Porto Rican soil. As the troops began to 
land the Spaniards opened fire upon them. The Americans replied with their 
rifles and machine guns, and the ships also shelled the enemy from the harbor. 
Five dead Spaniards were found after the firing had ceased. Not an American 
was touched. 

Before nightfall all the troops were landed. The next day General Miles 
marched toward Ponce. Four men were wounded in a skirmish at Yauco on 
the way, but at Ponce, where General Ernst's expedition from Charleston met 
them and disembarked on July 28th, the Spaniards fled on the approach of the 
Americans, whom the mayor of the city and the people welcomed with joy, 
making many demonstrations in their honor and ofiering their services to hunt 
and fight the Spaniards. General Miles issued a proclamation to the people 
declaring clearly the United States' purpose of annexing them. The mayor of 
Ponce published this proclamation, with an appeal from himself to the people 
to salute and hail the American flag as their own, and to welcome and aid the 
American soldiers as their deliverers and brothers. 

On August 4th General Brooke arrived, and the fleet commander, Captain 
Higginson, with little resistance opened the port of Arroyo, where they were 
successfully landed the next day, and General Haines' brigade captured the 
place with a few prisoners. 

The Americans were then in possession of all the principal ports on the 
south coast, covering between fifty and sixty miles of that shore. A forward 
movement was inaugurated in three divisions — all of which we will consider 
together — the object of General Miles being to occupy the island and drive the 
Spanish forces before him into San Juan, and by the aid of the fleet capture 
them there in a body, though the Spanish forces numbered 8,000 regulars and 
9,000 volunteers, against which were the 11,000 land forces of the Americans 
and also their fleet. 

The town of Coamo was captured August 9th after half an hour of fighting 
by Generals Ernst and Wilson, the Americans driving the Spaniards from 
their trenches, and sustaining a loss of six wounded. On the 10th General 
Schwan encountered 1,000 Spaniards at Bosario River. This was the most 



538 THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR. 

severe eugagement in Porto Rico. The Spaniards were routed, with what loss 
is unknown. The Americans had two killed and sixteen wounded. 

On the 11th General Wilson moved on to Abonito and found the enemy 
strongly intrenched in the mountain fastnesses along the road. He ventured 
an attack with artillery, sustaining a loss of one man killed and four wounded. 
On pain of another attack he sent a messenger demanding the surrender of the 
town of Abonito ; but the soldierly answer was sent back : " Tell General 
Wilson to stay where he is if he wishes to avoid the shedding of much blood." 
General Wilson concluded to delay until General Brooke could come up before 
making the assault, and, while thus waiting, the news of peace arrived. 

Meantime General Brooke had been operating around Guayama, where he 
had five men wounded. At three o'clock, August 12th, the battle was just 
opening in good order, and a great fight was anticipated. The gunners were 
sighting their first pieces when one of the signal corps galloped up with the 
telegram announcing peace. " You came just fifteen minutes too soon. The 
troops will be disappointed," said General Brooke, and they were. 

So ended the well-planned campaign of Porto Rico, in which General Miles 
had arranged, by a masterly operation with 11,000 men, the occupation of an 
island 108 miles long by thirty-seven broad. As it was, he had already occu- 
pied about one-third of the island with a loss of only three killed and twenty- 
eight wounded, against a preponderating force of 17,000 Spaniards. 

After the signing of the protocol of peace General Brooke was left in 
charge of about half the forces in Porto Rico, pending a final peace, while 
General Miles with the other half returned to the United States, where he 
arrived early in September and was received with fitting ovations in New York, 
Philadelphia, and Washington, at which latter city he again took up his quarters 
as the Commander of the American Army. 

THE CONQUEST OF THE PHILIPPINES. 

After Dewey's victory at Manila, already referred to, it became evident that 
he must have the co-operation of an army in cajjturing and controlling the city. 
The insurgents under General Aguinaldo appeared anxious to assist Admiral 
Dewey, but it was feared that he could not control them. Accordingly, the big 
monitor Ifonterey was started for Manila and orders were given for the imme- 
diate outfitting of expeditions from San Francisco under command of Major- 
GJeneral Wesley Merritt. The first expedition consisted of between 2,500 and 
3,000 troops, commanded by Brigadier-General Anderson, carried on three ships, 
the Charleston, the City of Pekin, and the City of Sydney. This was the longest 
expedition (about 6,000 miles) on which American troops were ever sent, and 
the men carried supplies to last a year. The Charleston got away on the 22d, 



THE CONQUEST OF THE PHILIPPINES. 



530 



and the other two vessels followed three days later. The expedition went 
through safely, arriving at Manila July 1st. The Charleston had stopped on 
June 21st at the Ladrone Islands and captured the island of Guam without 
resistance. The soldiers of the garrison were taken on as prisoners to Manila 
and a garrison of American soldiers left in charge, with the stars and stripes 
waving over the fortifications. 

The second expedition of 3,500 men sailed June 15th under General Greene, 
who used the steamer China as his flagship. This expedition landed July 16th 
at Cavite in the midst of considerable excitement on account of the aggressive 
movements of the insurgents and the 
daily encounters and skirmishes be- 
tween them and the Spanish forces. 

On June 23d the monitor 3Io- 
nadnoc sailed to further reinforce 
Admiral Dewey, and four days later 
the third expedition of 4,000 troops 
under General McArthur passed out 
of the Golden Gate amid the cheers 
of the multitude, as the others had 
done; and on the 29th General Mer- 
ritt followed on \h& Netvport. Nearly 
one month later, July 23d, General 
H. G. Otis, with 900 men, sailed on 
the City of Rio de Janeiro fi'om San 
Francisco, thus making a total of 
nearly 12,000 men, all told, sent to 
the Philippine Islands. 

General Merritt arrived at Ca- 
vite July 25th, and on July 29th the 
American forces advanced from Ca- 
vite toward Manila. On the 31st, major-general wesley merritt. 

while enroute, they were attacked at Malate by 3,000 Spaniards, whom they 
repulsed, but sustained a loss of nine men killed and forty-seven wounded, nine 
of them seriously. This was the first loss of life on the part of the Americans 
in action in the Philippines. The Spanish casualties were much heavier. On 
the same day General McArthur's reinforcements arrived at Cavite, and several 
days were devoted to j^reparations for a combined land and naval attack. 

On August 7th Admiral Dewey and General Merritt demanded the sur- 
render of the city within forty-eight hours, and foreign war-ships took their 
respective subjects on board for protection. On August 9th the Spaniards 

37 




54:0 THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR. 

asted more time to hear from Madrid, but this was refused, and on the 13th a 
final demand was made for immediate surrender, which Governor-General 
Augusti refused and embarked with his family on board a German man-of-war, 
which sailed with him for Hong Kong. At 9.30 o'clock the bombardment be- 
gan with fury, all of the vessels sending hot shot at the doomed city. 

In the midst of the bombardment by the fleet American soldiers under 
Generals McArthur and Greene were ordered to storm the Sjjanish trenches 
which extended ten miles around the city. The soldiers rose cheei'ing and 
dashed for the Spanish earthworks. A deadly fire met them, but the men 
rushed on and swept the enemy from their outer defenses, forcing them to their 
inner trenches. A second charge was made upon these, and the Spaniards 
retreated into the walled city, where they promptly sent up a white flag. The 
ships at once ceased firing, and the victorious Americans entered the city after 
six hours' fighting. General Merritt took command as military governor. The 
Spanish forces numbered 7,000 and the Americans 10,000 men. The loss to 
the Americans was about fifty killed, wounded, and missing, which was very 
small under the circumstances. 

In the meantime the insurgents had formed a government with Aguinaldo 
as president. They declared themselves most friendly to American occupation 
of the islands, with a view to aiding them to establish an independent govern- 
ment, which they hoped would be granted to them. On September 15th they 
opened their republican congress at Malolos, and President Aguinaldo made the 
opening address, expressing warm appreciation of Americans and indulging the 
hope that they meant to establish the independence of the islands. On Sep- 
tember 16th, however, in obedience to the command of General Otis, they with- 
drew their forces from the vicinity of Manila. 

PEACE NEGOTIATIONS AND THE PROTOCOL. 

Precisely how to open the negotiations for peace was a delicate and difficult 
question. Its solution, however, proved easy enough when the attempt was 
made. During the latter part of July the Spanish government, through M. 
Jules Cambon, the French ambassador at Washington, submitted a note, asking 
the United States government for a statement of the ground on which it would 
be willing to cease hostilities and arrange for a peaceable settlement. Accord- 
ingly, on July 30th, a statement, embodying President McKinley's views, was 
transmitted to Spain, and on August 2d Spain virtually accepted the terms by 
cable. On August 9th Spain's formal reply was presented by M. Cambon, and 
on the next day he and Secretary Day agreed upon terms of a protocol, to be 
sent to Spain for her approval. Two days later, the 12th inst., the French 
ambassador was authorized to sign the protocol for Spain, and the signatures 



PEACE NEGOTIATIONS AND THE PROTOCOL. oil 

were affixed the same afternoon at the White House (M. Cambon signing for 
Spain and Secretary Day for the United States), in the i^resence of President 
McKinley and the chief assistants of the Department of State. The six main 
points covered by the protocol were as follows : 

" 1. That Spain will relinquish all claim of sovereignty over and title to 
Cuba. 

" 2. That Porto Rico and other Spanish islands in the West Indies, and 
an island in the Ladrones, to be selected by the United States, shall be ceded to 
the latter. 

" 3. That the United States will occupy and hold the city, bay, and harbor 
of Manila, pending the conclusion of a treaty of peace which shall determine the 
control, disposition, and government of the Philippines. 

" 4. That Cuba, Porto Rico, and other Spanish islands in the West Indies 
shall be immediately evacuated, and that commissioners, to be appointed within 
ten days, shall, within thirty days from the signing of the protocol, meet at 
Havana and San Juan, respectively, to arrange and execute the details of the 
evacuation. 

•' 5. That the United States and Spain will each appoint not more than five 
commissioners to negotiate and conclude a treaty of peace. The commissioner 
are to meet at Paris not later than October 1st. 

"6. On the signing of the protocol, hostilities will be suspended and notice 
to that effect be given as soon as possible by each government to the com- 
manders of its military and naval forces." 

On the very same afternoon President McKinley issued a proclamation 
announcing on the part of the United States a suspension of hostilities, and over 
the wires the word went ringing throughout the length and breadth of the land 
and under the ocean that peace was restored. The cable from Hong Kong to 
Manila, however, had not been repaired for use since Dewey had cut it in May; 
consequently it was several days before tidings could reach General Merritt and 
Admiral Dewey; and meantime the battle of Manila, which occurred on the 
13th, was fought. 

On August 17th President McKinley named commissioners to adjust the 
Spanish evacuation of Cuba and Porto Rico, in accordance with the terms of 
the protocol. Rear-Admiral Wm. T. Sampson, Senator Matthew C. Butler, and 
Major-General James F. Wade were ajipointed for Cuba, and Rear-Admiral 
W. S. Schley, Brigadier-General Wm. W. Gordon, and Major-General John R. 
Brooke for Porto Rico. In due time Spain announced her commissioners, and, 
as agreed, they met in September and the arrangements for evacuation were 
speedily completed and carried out. 

President McKinley appointed as the National Peace Commission, Secre- 



k 



5^2 THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR. 

tary of State Wm. R. Day, Senator Cushman K. Davis of Minnesota, Senator 
Wm. P. Frye of Maine, Senator George Gray of Delaware, and My. Wliitelaw 
Eeid of New York. Secretary Day resigned bis State portfolio September 16tb, 
in wbicb he was succeeded by Colonel John Hay, former Ambassador to Eng- 
land. With ex-Secretary Day at their head the Americans sailed from New 
York, September 17th, met the Spanish Commissioners at Paris, France, as 
agreed, and arranged the details of the final peace between the two nations. 
Thus ended the Spanish-American War. 

HOME-COMING OF OUR SOLDIERS. 

After Spain's virtual acceptance of the terms of peace contained in Presi- 
dent McKinley's note of July 30th, it was deemed unnecessary to keep all the 
forces unoccupied in the fever districts of Cuba and the unsanitary camps of 
our own country; consequently the next day after receipts of Spain's message 
of August 2d, on August 3d, the home-coming was inaugurated by ordering all 
cavalry under General Shafter at Santiago to be transported to Montauk Point, 
Long Island, and on the 6th instant transports sailed bearing those who were to 
come north. These were followed rapidly by others from Santiago, and later 
by about half the forces from Porto Rico under General Miles, and others from 
the various camps, so that by the end of September, 1898, nearly half of the 
great army of 268,000 men had been mustered out of service or sent home 
on furlough. 

It is a matter of universal regret that so many of our brave volunteers 
died of neglect in camps and on transports, and that fever, malaria, and 
exposure carried several times the number to their graves as were sent there by 
Spanish bullets. Severe criticisms have been lodged against the War Depart- 
ment for both lack of efficiency and neglect in caring for the comfort, health, 
and life of those who went forward at their country's call. 

However, it must be remembered that the War Department undertook and 
accomplished a herculean task, and it could not be expected, starting with a 
regular force of less than 30,000 men, that an army of a quarter of a million 
could be built up out of volunteers who had to be collected, trained, clothed, 
equipped, and provisioned, and a war waged and won on two sides of the globe, 
in a little over three months, without much suffering and many mistakes. 

THE TREATY OF PEACE. 

December 10, 1898, was one of the most eventful days in the past decade 
— one fraught with great interest to the world, and involving the destiny of more 
than 10,000,000 of people. At nine o'clock on the evening of that day the 
commissioners of the United States and those of Spain met for the last time. 




COMMISSIONERS WHO SETTLED TERMS OF PEACE WITH SPAIN 

'.ripuintPd SopffnibiT !>. isns, Jlc^t Spanish Co ■nri^sinnoi's nt raris. ('.tcdpr 1st. Ti-oatv o£ 

I'uace signed ly t-;e ('nramissionrrs at Paris. PecemliPr 10th, aod ratiliod by the United 

Plates Senate at Washington, Kcliruary 6, 1809. 



THE TREATY OF PEACE. 543 

after about eleven weeks of deliberation, in the magnificent apartments of the 
foreign ministry at the French capital, and signed the Treaty of Peace, which 
finally marked the end of the Spanish-American War. 

This treaty transformed the political geography of the world by establish- 
ing the United States' authority in both hemispheres, and also in the tropics, 
where it had never before extended. It, furthermore, brought under our 
dominion and obligated us for the government of strange and widely isolated 
peoples, who have little or no knowledge of liberty and government as measured 
by the American standards. In this new assumption of responsibility America 
essayed a difficult problem, the solving of which involved results that could not 
fail to influence the destiny of our nation and the future history of the whole 
world. 

The Queen Regent of Spain signed the ratification of the Treaty of Peace 
on March 17, 1899, and the final act took place on the afternoon of April 11th, 
when copies of the final protocol were exchanged at Washington by President 
McKinley and the French ambassador, M. Cambon, representing Spain. The 
President immediately issued a proclamation of peace, and thus the Spanish- 
American War came to an ofiicial end. A few weeks later the sum of 
$20,000,000 was paid to Spain, in accordance with the treaty, as partial com- 
pensation for the surrender of her rights in the Philippines, and diplomatic 
relations between the Latin kingdom and the United States were resumed. 

The treaty witli Spain was finally consummated on July 3, 1899, on which 
day it was ratified by the Spanish Cortes. It gave the United States, for the 
first time in its history, an insular territory, tropical in situation, with a com- 
bined area of about 150,000 square miles and a population of probably over 
8,000,000. It comprises some of the most fertile lands of the tropics, produc- 
ing in abundance sugar, coffee, tobacco, tropical fruits and timber, and is likely 
to be of great advantage to the United States. 



CHAPTER XXV. 
ADVUNISTRATION ok IVEcKINLEY (CONTINLIED). 
THE CLOSING EVKNXS OK THE NINETEENTH 

CENTURY. 

Affairs in Cuba and Porto Rico — Dewej''s Promotion and Ueturn — The Philippine Situation — Aguinaldo's 
Insurrection — The War in Luzon — The Philippine Commission — Amnesty Proclaimed — Afi'airs in 
China— The Boxer Outbreak — Presidential Nominations in 1900 — Party Platforms — The New 
Census — The Capture of Aguinaldo — Pan-American Exposition — The Presidential Trans-Conti- 
nental Tour — Other Events of National Importance 

THE UNITED STATES BECOMES A WORLD POWER. 

On the last day of 1898 the Spanish troops were withdrawn from Havana, 
and on the first day of 1899 the stars and stripes proudly floated over that 
queen city of the American tropics. But this was only for a time. The United 
States was pledged to give freedom to Cuba, and no man in authority thought 
of breaking this pledge, for the honor of the country was involved. 

In the summer of 1900 the Cuban people were asked to hold a convention 
and form a Constitution, with the single proviso that it should contain no clauses 
favoring European aggression or inimical to American interests. This done, 
American troops and officials would be withdrawn and Cuba be given over to 
the Cubans. 

The occupation of Porto Rico, on the contrary, was permanent. It had 
been fully ceded to the United States, and steps were taken to make it a constitu- 
ent part of that country. But the period of transition from Spanish to 
American rule was not favorable to the interests of the people, who suffered 
severely, their business being wrecked by tariff" discrimination. Action by 
Congress was demanded, and a bill was passed greatly reducing the tariff" in 
Porto Rico, but not giving free trade with the United States, though many held 
that this was the Constitutional right of the islanders. Under this new tariff 
business was resumed, and the lost prosj^erity of the island was gradually 
restored. 

The occupation of our new possessions in the Pacific presented serious diffi- 
culties. This was not the case with Hawaii, which fell peacefully under its 
new rule, and in 1900 was made a Territory of the United States. With the 
Philippine Islands the case was diff'erent. There hostility to American rule 

(544) 



THE UNITED STATES BECOMES A WORLD POWER. 



54". 



soon showed itself, and eventually an insurrection began, leading to a war, 
which proved far more protracted and sanguinary than that with Spain. 



DEWEY RETURNS HOME. 

Shortly after these troubles began Admiral Dewey received a well-merited 
reward. On the od of March, 1899, he was promoted by President McKinley 
and the Senate from the rank of rear-admiral to that of full admiral, a grade 
of high honor which only two Americans, Farragut and Porter, had borne 
before him. Worn out with his labors, this distinguished officer soon after set 
out for home. His journey was a 
leisurely one, and he was the recip- 
ient of the highest honors at every 
stopping-place on his route. On 
reaching his own country he found 
himself a great pojiular hero, and was 
everywhere greeted with enthusiastic 
api:)lause. His reception at New York 
was one of the striking events of the 
century, and as a lasting testimonial 
of appreciation and esteem his grate- 
ful countrymen purchased him a beau- 
tiful residence in Washington. Here, 
takins: to himself a wife, the Admiral 
settled down to peace and domestic 
comfort after his stormy career. 

THE PHILIPPINE INSURRECTION. 

Dewey left the Philippines in a 
state of convulsion. On the 30tli of 
December, 1898, President McKinley 
had issued a proclamation offering 
the natives, under American suprem- 




MAJOR-GENERAL ELWELL S. OTIS. 



acy, a considerable measure of home rule, including a voice in local government, 
the right to hold office, a fair judiciary, and freedom of speech and of the press. 
These concessions were not satisfactory to Emilio Aguinaldo, the leader in the 
late insurrection against Spain, who demanded independence for the islands. 
He claimed that Dewey had promised it to him in return for his aid in the 
capture of Manila — a claim which Dewey positively denied. 

General Elwell S. Otis, who had succeeded General Merritt as military 



54G ADMINISTRATION OF McKINLEY. 

governor of the islands, found himself plunged into the midst of an active war. 
The difficulty with which General Otis had to contend was one in which the 
navy was not specially concerned, it being almost wholly a military affiiir. It 
had its origin in a variety of causes, beginning with the irritation of the Fil- 
ipino forces in not being permitted to enter Manila after its capture — presuma- 
bly with the purpose of loot and outrage. This irritation was added to by 
growing relations of hostility between the American and the Philippine forces. 
Little was done to adjust this trouble, and the hostile attitude of the Fili- 
pinos steadily increased. Not until after fighting had actually begun was an 
effort at an amicable settlement made, and in this Dewey took part. 

Before his return he had served on a commission, organized with the hope 
of reaching a peaceful end of the difficulties. The other members of the 
commission were General Otis, Jacob G. Shurman, President of Cornell Univer- 
sity, Professor Dean Worcester, and Charles Denby, late Minister to China. 
The commission began its work on Ajjril 4, 1899, by issuing a proclamation to 
the Philippine people, offering them, under the supremacy of the United States, 
an abundant measure of civil rights, honest administration, reform of abuses, 
and development of the resources of the country. This proclamation fell still- 
born, so far as the insurgent forces were concerned, Aguinaldo issuing counter 
proclamations and calling on the people to fight for complete independence. It 
was evident that the settlement of the affair would depend on the rifle and the 
sword rather than on paper proclamations and promises. 

THE INSURRECTION IN LUZON. 

On the 30th of December, 1898, President McKinley tad issued a proc- 
lamation to the Philippine people, in which he offered them a large measure of 
local self-government, the right to hold office, a fair judiciary and freedom of 
speech and of the press. These concessions were not satisfactory to their leaders, 
and in January, 1899, a conference was held with General Otis in which the 
Philippine spokesman demanded a greater degree of self-government than he 
had authority to grant. As the debate in the Senate upon the treaty of 
peace with Spain approached its termination, and promised to end in the ratifi- 
cation of the treaty and the cession of the islands to the United States, the rest- 
lessness and hostility of the natives increased, and on the night of February 
4th the threatened outbreak came, in a fierce attack on the American outposts 
at Manila. A severe battle ensued, continuing for two days, and ending in 
the defeat of the natives, who had suffered severely and were driven back for 
miles beyond the city limits. 

Meanwhile a republic had been proclaimed by the Philippine leaders, 



THE UNITED STATES BECOMES A WORLD POWER. 547 

Aguinaldo being chosen president and commander-in-chief of the native armies. 
He immediately issued a declaration of war, and both sides prepared for active 
hostilities. The first stej? taken by the Filipinos was a desperate one — an 
attempt at wholesale arson. On the night of February 22d the city of Manila 
was set on fire at several points, and the soldiers and firemen who sought to 
extinguish the flames were fired upon from many of the houses. The result was 
not serious except to the natives themselves, since the conflagration was in great 
part confined to their quarter of the city. General Otis took vigilant precau- 
tions to prevent the recurrence of such an attempt, and from that time forward 
Manila, though full of secret hostiles, wa.s safe from the peril of incendiarism. 

THE CAMPAIGN OF 1899. 

The American forces, being strengthened with reinforcements, began their 
advance on March 25th. They met with sharp resistance, the Filipinos having 
thrown up earthworks at every defensible point, and being well armed with 
Mauser rifles. But they nowhere seemed able to sustain the vigorous onsets of 
the Americans, who did not hesitate to charge their works and swim wide rivers 
in face of their fire, and they were driven back from a long succession of forti- 
fied places. On March 31st Malolos, the capital of Aguinaldo, was occupied. 
Calumpit, another Philippine stronghold, was taken near the end of April. 
General Lawton, an old Indian fighter, who had recently reached the islands, 
led an expedition northward through the foothills and captured San Isidro, the 
second insurgent capital. Various other places were taken, and at the beginning 
of July, when the coming on of the rainy season put an end to active operations, 
a large and populous district to the north and west of Manila was in American 
hands. 

By this time it had become evident that a larger army was needed to com- 
plete the task, and reinforcements were now hurried across the ocean. With them 
was sent a considerable body of cavalry, the lack of which had seriously handi- 
capped the troops in the spring campaign. Fighting was resumed in mid- 
autumn, and Aguinaldo's new capital of Tarlac quickly fell. The insurgents 
seemed to have lost heart from their reverses in the spring, and defended them= 
selves with less courage and persistence, the result being that by the 1st of 
December the Americans were masters of the whole line of the Manila- 
Dagupan Railway and the broad plain through which it ran, and the Filipinos 
were in full flight for the mountains, hotly pursued by Lawton and Young, 
with their cavalry and scouts. 

From that time forward there was no Filipino army, properly so-called^ 
Aguinaldo's forces being broken up into fugitive bands, capable only of guerilla 



548 ADMINISTRATION OF McKINLEY. 

warfare. The American troops traversed the island from end to end, hating 
frequent collisions with small parties of the enemy, in one of which, unfortu- 
nately, the gallant Lawton was shot dead. Many of the insurgent leaders were 
captured or surrendered, but Aguinaldo continued at large, and the hope of a 
final end of the war came to depend largely upon the event of his capture. 

In November the Philippine Commission made its report to the government, 
and a system which was thought to be well adapted to the situation was formu- 
lated at Washington. This declared that the people of the Philip2:)ines, while 
many of them were intelligent and capable, had no experience in self-govern- 
ment, and that it was necessary for the United States to retain a firm political 
control, while giving them such share in the government as they were fitted to 
exercise, increasing this as they gained political training. In accordance with 
this policy, local governments were established in those localities which had 
become pacified, and with very promising effect. By the summer of 1900 the 
resistance to American domination had so much decreased that President 
McKinley issued a proclamation of amnesty, with the hope that the natives still 
in arms would take advantage of the opportunity to cease their desult<?ry 
resistance. 

THE SITUATION IN CHINA. 

Wliile this was going on in the Philippines a disturbed condition of affairs 
suddenly developed in a new quarter, the ancient and poiDulous empire of China. 
It is n.'cessary to go a step backwards to trace the course of events leading to this 
unlooked-for situation. The whole intercourse of European nations Avith China 
had been of a character to create indi2;nation and hatred of foreierners in the 
populace of that country. The Japano-Chinese war increased this feeling, while 
demonstrating the incapacity of the Chinese to cope in war with modern nations. 
In the years that followed, the best statesmen of China vividly realized the 
defects of their system, and recognized that a radical reform was necessary to 
save the nation from a total collapse. The nations of Euroj)e were seizing the 
best ports of the empire and threatening to divide the whole country between 
them, a peril which it needed vigorous measures to avert. 

The result was an effort to modernize the administration. Railroads had 
long been practically forbidden, but now concessions for the building of hundreds 
of miles of road were granted. Modern implements of war were purchased in 
great quantities, and the European drill and discipline were introduced into the 
imperial army. The young emperor became strongly imbued with the spirit of 
reform, and ordered radical changes in the administration of affairs. In short, 
a promising beginning was made in the modernization of the ancient empire. 










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THE UNITED STATES BECOMES A WORLD POWER. 541) 

A movement of this kind in a country so rigidly conservative as China 
could scarcely fail to produce a revulsion. The party of ancient prejudice and 
conservative sentiment — a party comprising the bulk of the nation — took the 
alarm. The empress-dowager, who had recently laid down the reins of govern- 
ment as regent, took them up again, under the support of the conservative 
leaders, seized and held in palace seclusion the emperor, put to death his 
advisers, and restored the old methods of administration. 

THE BOXER OUTBREAK. 

This revolution in the palace soon made itself felt in the hovel. A secret 
society of the common people, known as " The Boxers," rose in arms, made a 
murderous onslaught upon the missionaries, who were widely domiciled within 
the realm, and soon ajDpeared in the capital. Here, aided by many of the soldiers, 
and led by men high in rank in the anti-foreign party, they made a virulent 
assault upon the legation buildings, and put the ministers of the nations in 
imminent peril of their lives. These exalted officials were cut oflf from all 
communication with their governments, stories of their massacre alone filtering 
through, and the powers, roused to desperation by the danger of their envoys, 
sent ships and troops in all haste to the nearest point to Pekin. In this move- 
ment the United States actively joined, its minister, Edwin H. Conger, and the 
members of the embassy sharing the common peril. 

THE RESCUE OF THE MINISTERS. 

As the month of July went on the mystery at Pekin deepened. It became 
known that the German minister had been murdered, and doubtful reports of 
the slaughter of all the foreigners in the capital were cabled. As it seemed 
impossible to obtain authentic news, the greatest possible haste was made to 
collect an army strong enough to march to Pekin, and early in August this 
torce, consisting of some 16,000 Japanese, Russians, Americans and British, 
set out. A severe struggle was looked for, and their ability to reach Pekin 
seemed very doubtful. At Peitsang, some twelve miles on the route, the Chinese 
made a desperate resistance, which aagured ill for the enterprise ; but their 
defeat there seemed to rob them of spirit, and the gates of Pekin were reached 
with little more fighting. On the 14th the gates were assailed, the feeble opposi- 
tion from within was overcome, and the troops marched in triumph to the British 
legation, the stout walls of which had offered a haven of refuge to the 
imperilled legationers. 

Glad, indeed, were the souls of the beleaguered men and women within, so 
long in peril of death from torture or starvation, to see the stars and stripes 



550 ADMINISTRATION OF McKINLEY 

and the union jack waving over the coming troops. Only then was the mys- 
tery surrounding their fate made clear and the safety of all tiie ministers, 
except the representative of Germany, assured. So far as the United States 
was concerned, the work was at an end. It showed its magnanimity at a later 
date by declining to accept the share adjudged to it of the severe financial pen- 
alty laid by the nations upon China. 

THE POLITICAL CAMPAIGN OF 1900. 

In 1900 came another Presidential election, the candidates chosen by the 
leading parties for the Presidency being the same as in 1896, William McKinley 
being nominated by the Republicans and WiHiam J. Bryan by the Democrats. 
For Vice-President the Republicans chose Theodore Roosevelt, Governor of 
New York and late colonel of the Rough Riders, and the Democrats chose Adlai 
E. Stevenson, who had filled that office under Cleveland. There were also nomi- 
nations by the Populist and other parties, as in the preceding election. 

The platforms-of the parties were significant from the fact that the old party 
war-cries sank into insignificance and new principles rose into prominence. The 
tariff, so long a leading issue, vanished, and the question of free silver, so pro- 
nounced in 1896, became a minor issue. The new points in debate were the 
Trusts and the policy of so-called Imperialism. As both parties condemned the 
Trusts in their platforms, these could not well be made a leading issue, and there 
remained only the question of Imperialism, a controversy based on the efforts of 
the administration to subdue and conti'ol the people of the Philippine Islands. 
The party opposed to this policy had grown in numbers, and Anti-Imperialism 
was taken up as the chief issue of the day by the Democratic orators. The prob- 
lem of the conquest or the independence of the Philippines was abundantly 
debated, but the people showed their conception of the issue by strongly sup- 
porting the administration, McKinley being re-elected by a considerably larger 
majority than in 1896. 

THE CENSUS OF 1900. 

The census taken in 1900 showed a considerable increase in the population 
of the United States over 1890, the 62,600,000 of this date being increased to 
over 76,000,000. Of this population, about 33 per cent, lived in cities and towns 
of 8,000 and over, as against 29 per cent, in 1890. Of the cities four — New 
York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Brooklyn — had passed the million mark, 
though really there were only three, since Brooklyn had shortly before been 
absorbed by New York. The centre of population, in 1880 near Columbus 
Indiana, had moved to a point seven miles northwest of that city. 



AGUINALDO CAPTURED BY GENERAL FUNSTON. 551 

In March, 1901, an event of leading importance took place in the Philip- 
pine Islands in the capture of Eraile Aguinaldo, President of the Philippine 
government and commander-in-chief of its forces. On February 28th, General 
Funston had captured a messenger bearing letters from the insurgent leader, 
which revealed the fact that he was then at the town of Palanan, in northwest 
Luzon. Funston at once devised a plan and organized a force for his capture. 

The expedition consisted of seventy-eight Macabebe scouts, dressed as in- 
surgents and laborers, and four ex-insurgent officers. The only Americans 
were Funston and four other officers, who had disguised themselves as privates. 
Funston had prepared two decoy letters, apparently signed by the insurgent 
general Lacuna, whose seal and correspondence he had captured some time 
before. These stated that Lacuna was sending his superior the best company 
under his command. 

Landing from the gunboat Vicksburg, the party made a toilsome march 
over a very rugged country. They reached Palanan on March 23d. Agui- 
naldo was completely deceived by the letters, and the story told him that the 
Americans were part of a surveying party which had been surprised on the 
march, part being killed and part taken. His household guards were drawn up 
to receive the visitors and their captives. Suddenly the mask was thrown off, 
firing began, and one of the ex-insurgent officers seized and held him firmly. 
His attendants and body-guard at once took to flight, and in a few minutes the 
affiiir was at an end, and the Filipino leader was a captive to the Americans. 
The expedition had proved a complete success. The important prisoner was 
brought to Manila, and confined there in the Malacanan Palace. Here he soon 
regained his calmness, talked freely, and was visited by a number of prominent 
Filipinos, who sought to convince him that the struggle was hopeless, and ad- 
vised him to use his influence with the people to establish peace. Their argu- 
ments were efiective, Aguinaldo expressed his satisfaction with the form of gov- 
ernment, and on April 2d he took the oath of allegiance to the United States. 

The efiect of his capture proved highly favorable. Several prominent in- 
surgent leaders at once surrendered themselves and their bands, and it seemed as 
if a new era of peace was about to dawn. Aguinaldo, who had apparently ex* 
perienced a change of opinion, did his share towards hastening it by sending 
peace emissaries to the chiefs still in arms and signing a jjeace manifesto for dis- 
tribution among the people. General Funston's brilliant exploit was not left 
unrewarded. Its value was heightened by the great risk he had run in his 
daring deed, and on March 30th President McKinley promoted him to the rank 
of Brigadier-General in the United States army. His comrades were also 
suitably rewarded for their participation in the exploit, which was looked upon 
as the most signal instance of courage and daring during the entire war. 



552 PAN-AMERICAN EXPOSITION. 

After two years of more or less active warfare the struggle in the Philip- 
pines was practically at an end. There were still some bands of brigands in 
the mountains, as there had been for centuries, but the revolutionists ceased 
their opposition, and the Taft Commission, appointed by President McKinley 
to establish a liberal form of government in the islands, met with the greatest 
success in its work. At the same time a large number of teachers were sent out 
from the United States to establish schools in the islands, and thus confer upon 
their people the highest boon which this country was able to bestow — that of 
education on liberal principles. 

PAN-AMERICAN EXPOSITION. 

Among the events of the opening year of the twentieth century one of the 
most interesting was the Pan-American Exposition, held in the city of Buffalo, 
N. Y., from May 1 to November 1. This project was first planned in 1897, 
the exposition to be held on a small scale, in 1899, on Cayuga Island, near 
Niagara Falls. The Spanish-American War, however, checked this project, and 
when it was revived it was on a more ambitious scale. Buffalo was chosen as 
the site, and the original 50 acres were expanded into 350 acres, the ground 
chosen including the most beautiful portions of Delaware Park. A fund of 
$5,000,000 was jirovided by the city and citizens of Buffalo, appropriations were 
made by the State of New York and the Federal Government, and the work 
was begun on an estimate of $10,000,000 of expenditures. 

The purpose of this Exposition is clearly indicated in its name. It con- 
cerned itself solely with the countries of the two Americas and the new posses- 
sions of the United States, of which it was proposed to show the progress during 
the nineteenth century, a leading object of the enteri^rise being to bring into 
closer relations, commercially and socially, the republics and colonies of the 
Western Hemisphere and promote intercourse between their peoples. The De- 
partment of State, in June, 1899, invited the various American governments to 
take part in the enterprise, and acceptances were very generally received. 

The preparations made for the Exposition were of the most admirable 
character, and, when completed, the grounds and buildings presented a magnifi- 
cent scene. While on a smaller scale than the Philadelphia and Chicago 
World's Fairs, the Buffalo Fair surpassed all previous ones in architectural 
beauty. Instead of presenting the pure white of the Columbian Exposition, 
there was a generous use of brilliant colors and rich tints, which gave a glowing 
rainbow effect to the artistically grouped buildings ; the general style of archi- 
tecture being a free treatment of the Spanish Renaissance, in compliment to the 
Latin-American countries taking part. The elaborate hydraulic and fountain 



TRANS-CONTINENTAL TOUR OF THE PRESIDENT. 553 

arrangements, the horticultural and floral settings, and the sculptural ornament- 
ation, added greatly to the general effect. 

Of the varied elements of the display, that of electricity stood first, the enor- 
mous electrical ^^lant at Niagara and its connection by wire with Buffalo afford- 
ing unequalled facilities in this direction. The Electric Tower, 375 feet high, was 
the centre-piece of the Exposition, the edifice itself being stately and beautiful 
and its electric disjilay on the grandest scale. The vari-colored electrical fountain 
was strikingly beautiful. There were winding canals, caverns and grottoes, 
water cascades, towers, domes and pinnacles, and other objects of attraction, not 
the least of them the Midway, with its diversified display, a feature which has 
become indispensable to all recent enteiprises of this character. 

During the summer and autumn the attendance was very large, the near 
vicinity of Niagara Falls, with its supreme scenic grandeur, forming a splendid 
addition to the commercial and industrial attractions of the Fair. Yet tlie Fair 
ended tragically in the assassination of President McKinley, a lamentable event 
which will be described on a coming page. 

TRANS-CONTINENTAL TOUR OF THE PRESIDENT. 

Another event of much public interest which marked the year 1901 was a 
grand tour of the entire country projected by President McKinley, on a scale 
far surpassing those undertaken by preceding Presidents, its limits being the 
Atlantic and Pacific in the East and West, and the Gulf and Lake States in the 
North and South. Leaving Washington on May 7th in a sjiecial train, whose 
cars were provided with every convenience and luxury which art could devise 
and skill provide, and following roads where the utmost care and precaution 
were taken to insure ease, safety and comfort of travel, the party proceeded 
through the southern portion of its route, the President being received in all 
the lai-ge cities and towns with a generous enthusiasm which spoke volumes for 
the unity of sentiment throughout the country. His appreciative remarks and 
well-chosen responses to addresses of welcome added greatly to the kindly feel- 
ing with which he was everywhere received. Unfortunately the severe illness 
of Mrs. McKinley, after San Francisco had been reached, put an end to the 
tour when half completed. The life of the " Lady of the White House " was 
despaired of, but she recovered sufiiciently to be brought back by the shortest 
route to Washington, attended at every point by her loving husband with the 
most assiduous and anxious care. 

The presence of the President in Washington was needed, for important 
political questions had arisen demanding his immediate attention and extended 
consultation with the members of his cabinet. These arose in consequence of a 
decision of the Supreme Court of the United States fixing the status of our 



554 AFFAIRS IN CUBA AND CHINA. 



insular possessions. In a number of instances duties had been collected on 
goods imported from Porto Rico and Hawaii to this country, and in one instance 
fourteen diamonds brought by a soldier from the Philippine Islands had been 
seized for non-payment of duty. Several lawsuits brought for the recovery of 
these duties, on the claim that they had been illegally exacted, were decided 
adversely to the claimants by the lower courts, and appeals were taken to the 
Supreme Court. A decision was rendered by this court on May 28, 1901, in the 
suit of DeLima & Co., merchants of New York, which covered all the cases in- 
volved except the Philippine one, which was left in doubt. This opinion, an- 
nounced by Justice Brown, was concurred in by five members of the court, Chief 
Justice Fuller and Associate Justices Brown, Brewer, Harlan and Peckham, and 
dissented from by Justices Gray, Shiras, White and McKenna. 

The decision was to the effect, that before the Treaty of Paris Porto Rico 
was a foreign country and its exports were subject to full duties. After that treaty 
it became a domestic territory, and as such subject to the jurisdiction of Con- 
gress while it continued a territorial possession, the decision being that Congress 
has the right to administer the government of a territory and to lay such 
duties upon its commerce as it deems suitable. The effect of this decision was 
that, from the signing of the Treaty of Paris till the passage of the Foraker 
act fixing the duties at 15 per cent, no duties could legally be collected on 
Porto Rican goods. After that act was passed the duties designated by it could 
be exacted. 

This crucial decision fixes the status of all our insular possessions under 
civil control. But the court adjourned without rendering an opinion on the 
Philippine case, and as the Philippine Islands differed from Porto Rico in being 
under military control, the question as to the right of the government to collect 
duties upon Philippine goods remained unsettled. Many held that the Presi- 
dent had no authority to exact duties, and that it would be necessary to call 
an extra session of Congress in order to pass a law governing the Philippine 
customs ; but the President decided that this was not needed, and that existing 
acts of Congress governed this special case. 

AFFAIRS IN CUBA AND CHINA. 

This was one of the questions which confronted President McKinley on 
his return to Washington. Another had to do with Cuban affairs. The Cuban 
Constitutional Convention had accepted the Act of Congress fixing the relations 
between the United States and Cuba and establishing what might be called 
a mild form of protectorate over the island ; but its acceptance was vitiated 
by conditions which the President declined to accept, and the question was 
returned to the convention with the decisive understanding that the Piatt 



\ 



OTHER EVENTS OF NATIONAL IMPORTANCE. 555 

amendment must be accepted in its entirety, or the military occupation of Cuba 
would necessarily continue. On June 12, 1901, the Cuban Convention accepted 
this amendment in its original form, and the sole obstacle to Cuban independ- 
ence was removed. 

Meanwhile the Chinese situation had been modified by the withdrawal of 
the American troops, except a legation guard ; other nations also ordering the 
withdrawal of their troops and restoring the government to the Chinese. The 
indemnity demanded from and accepted by China amounted to $237,000,000, 
with interest at not over 4 per cent. This large sum was objected to by the 
United States Government, which in the end won the gratitude of China by 
declining to receive its share of the indemnity. 

OTHER EVENTS OF NATIONAL IMPORTANCE. 

Among other events of national importance was the settlement of the vexed 
question of the number of soldiers in the array. The provision to make it 
100,000 men was modified on suggestion of General Miles, and the number 
fixed at 76,000, making one soldier for every 1000 of the population. The 
problem of a ship canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific was also given a new 
phase by a proposition from the French Panama Canal Company to sell their 
partly completed canal to the United States. This opened the question as to 
the comparative availability of the two routes, the Nicaragua and the Panama, 
and left the final choice open to future decision. 

In the spring of 1901 a signal discovery of petroleum was made in the 
southwest, a well being opened at Beaumont, Texas, which threw a six-inch 
stream of oil a hundred feet into the air. Other rich wells were subsequently 
opened, some of them in Louisiana and Tennessee, and great excitement pre- 
vailed in the speculative world. The oil difiered essentially from that of Penn- 
sylvania, being ill adapted to refining and principally suitable for fuel. 

One of the most striking events of the year was the formation of an indus- 
trial combination on an unprecedented scale, a gigantic union of the steel manu- 
facturing interests of the country, with the immense capital of $1,100,000,000. 
A line of steamships was purchased in the interest of this concern, the railroad 
magnates of the country added to their holdings, and showed indications of an 
eventual general combination of transportation facilities, and the public stood 
aghast at these vast operations, in doubt as to where they would end, or hew the 
interests of the great multitude would be affected. In the spring of 1902 this 
combination of interests was added to by a stupendous amalgamation of the 
trans-Atlantic steamship lines, embracing nearly all the great passenger and 
freight steamships plying between Europe and America ; the whole controlled 
by the American capitalists who were at the head of the new steel and railroad 



556 McKINLEY SLAIN BY AN ANARCHIST. 

combinations. It was with such vast iiuancial and industrial operations that 
the new century began its career. 

On the afternoon of Friday, September 6, 1901, this country and the whole 
world were thrown into consternation as the news was flashed over the wires 
that President McKinley had fallen by the hand of an assassin. That day had 
been ajipointed as Presidents' Day at the Pan-American Exjiosition held at 
Buffalo, and elaborate preparations had been made to make this the event of 
the Exposition, all the high dignitaries of State, including the representatives 
of all the American governments, being in attendance. On September 5th the 
President delivered a speech, which was easily his greatest effort, advocating 
reciprocity in trade and greater encouragement to commerce. On the morning 
of the 6th, with his wife and party, he had visited Niagara Falls and inspected 
the Exposition. After luncheon he was to hold a public reception in the 
Temple of Music to meet his countrymen and take them by the hand. No 
trouble was anticipated, although precautions had been taken to avoid mis- 
haps. President McKinley, assisted by President Milburn and others, received 
the people as they moved by in a long, continuous line, shaking hands and smil- 
ing upon each. The would-be assassin was a rather tall, boyish-looking fellow, 
apparently 25 years old ; about his right hand was wrapped a handkerchief, 
giving the impression to the officers that his hand was injured, especially as 
he extended his left across the right to shake hands with the President. 

Innocently facing the assassin, the President smiled as he extended his 
right hand to meet the left of the man before him. As the youth extended his 
left hand he suddenly raised his right, the one which held the pistol, and 
before any one knew what was transpiring two shots rang out, one following 
the other after the briefest portion of a second. For the first moment there 
was not a sound. 

The President drew his right hand quickly to his chest, raised his head, 
and his eyes looked upward and rolled. He swerved a moment, reeled and 
was caught in the arms of Secretary Cortelyou to his right. Catching him- 
self for the briefest second, President McKinley, whose face was now the white- 
ness of death, looked at the assassin as the officers and soldiers bore him to the 
floor, and said, feebly: "May God forgive him." The President was first 
helped to a chair but was quickly removed on a stretcher to the emergency hos- 
pital, and all the eminent surgeons within reach were summoned. 

Two wounds were located, one in the breast, which was not serious, and 
the other in the abdomen, which proved fatal. There was every hope at first 
that he would recover, but after some days there came a relapse, and, although 
all that surgical and medical skill could do was done. President McKinley passed 



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ASSASSIN OF PRESIDENT M'KINLFA'. 557 

away early on the morning of September 14th. His last words were memorable : 
"It's God's way ; His will, not ours, be done." 

The world joined the American people in mourning the beloved President. 
He was given a state funeral at Washington, September 17th, and buried at 
Canton, his home city, September 19th, amid impressive ceremonies. 

THE ASSASSIN. 

The man who assassinated President McKinley was Leon Czolgosz, a Rus- 
sian Pole and an anarchist. At the time of the assassination he was described 
as follows : " He is twenty-eight years of age, slim, of dark complexion, with 
an intelligent and rather pleasing face. His features are straight and regular. 
He dresses with considerable neatness. There is nothing in his appearance 
that would attract unusual attention. He is not a suspicious-looking person." 

Czolgosz's parents were born in Russian Poland. They came to this 
country about 1865 as immigrants, and settled in the West. Czolgosz was born 
in Detroit, and hence was not an immigrant. He received some education in 
the common schools of that city, but left school and went to work when a boy 
as a blacksmith's apprentice. Later he read all the socialistic literature which he 
could obtain, and finally began to take part in socialistic meetings. In time he 
became fairly well known in Chicago, Cleveland and Detroit, not only as a 
socialist, but as an anarchist of the most bitter type. 

Czolgosz was placed on trial in Buffalo, September 23d, and was given able 
counsel to protect his interests. After an unsensational and impartial trial he 
was found guilty, and, on September 26th, he was sentenced to die in the 
electric chair at Auljurn Prison, in the State of New York. The execution 
took place in the early morning of October 29, 1901, in the presence of twenty- 
two witnesses and the prison officials. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 
ADMINISTRATION OK ROOSEVELT. 

Theodore Roosevelt — A Popular President— The Nicaragua Canal — The Ha}'-Pauncefote Treat}- — Pan- 
American Congress — The Schley Court of Inquiry — New Expositions — The President's Message — 
Proceedings of Congress — Cuba and its Sugar — Visit of Prince Henry — The South Carolina Senators 
— Cabinet Changes — The Danish West Indies — Philippine Affairs — The Louisiana Purchase Expo- 
sition — The Election of ] 904 — The Roosevelt Cabinet — Acts of President Roosevelt — Indictment of 
the Trusts — Roosevelt as a Peace Advocate — The San Francisco Disaster — The Panama Canal — 
Reform Legislation — Military Pensions — Conservation of Resources — Expositions — Oklahoma 
Admitted — A Great Naval Voyage— Engineering Exploits— Prohibition — Election of 1908 . 588 

THE TWENTY-SIXTH PRESIDENT, 

By the provision of the Constitution governing the succession, Theodore 
Roosevelt, the Vice-President, became President of the United States upon the 
death of William McKinley. He was at the time seeking recreation in the 
Adirondacks, but, on receiving the news, he sped with all haste to Buffalo, where, 
on September 14th, he took the oath of office, at the same time pledging himself 
to carry out the policy of his predecessor. 

Theodore Roosevelt was born October 27, 1858, in the city of New York, 
and therefore attained to the Presidency in his forty-third year, being the 
youngest of all our Presidents. Graduating from Harvard University in 1880, 
he quickly grew active in New York jjolitics, and in 1881 was elected a 
member of the Assembly. He served for three years in that body, in which he 
became influential and took a leading part in reform legislation for New 
York City. 

In 1884 he was the Republican candidate for Mayor of New York, and, 
though defeated, received a large vote. He was appointed in 1889, by President 
Harrison, on the Civil Service Commission, and in 1895 became Police Com- 
missioner of New York. His earnestness and energy for reform in both of these 
offices won him a national reputation, and led, in April, 1897, to his appoint- 
ment as Assistant Secretary of the Navy. Here, too, he did excellent work, 
but as soon as war with Spain was assured he resigned, organized the regiment 
of cowboy cavalry familiarly known as " Roosevelt's Rough Riders," and made 
himself the most popular figure in the Santiago campaign in Cuba. Coming 
home as the real hero of the military part of the war, as Dewey was of the 
naval, he was, in the autumn of 1898, elected Governor of New York, and, in 
1900, much against his own desire, was given the Republican nomination for 
Vice-President. Some of the party leaders hoped thus to " shelve " this ener- 
getic and unmanageable favorite of the people in a passive post of honor, but, as 

-.58 



ADMINISTRATION OF ROOSEVELT. 559 

events proved, the nomiuation led him to the highest office in the gift of the 
American people. 

OPENING OF THE ADMINISTRATION. 

The President's demeanor in the elevated position to which he had so 
suddenly and unexpectedly been raised was one that inspired public confidence 
and met with genera] approval. In addition to his pledge to conform to the 
policy of the McKinley administration, he requested all the members of the 
Cabinet to I'emain in office till the end of his terra. These assurances dissipated 
the feeling of dread that the new President might inaugurate an untried and 
disastrous policy, as in some previous instances of the same kind. 

The first official act of President Roosevelt was to issue a proclamation 
appointing Thursday, September 19th, as a day of mourning for the lamented 
late President. In the impressive funeral obsequies which followed he took 
part as chief mourner on the part of .the nation, and comported himself with a 
grave dignity well suited to the situation, and winning him fresh public esteem. 



^ 



THE NICARAGUA CANAL. 

Several events of much importance took place in the early months of the 
new administration, chief among them being what is known as the Hay- 
Pauncefote Treaty — a convention between the United States and Great Britain 
to establish a new status of these powers in Nicaragua. 

For years the desirability of constructing an inter-oceanic ship canal across 
Nicaragua or the Isthmus had been strongly felt. Much work in excavation 
had been done by private companies ; but these having failed, Congress became 
inclined to make the enterprise a national one, the United States to construct 
and control the canal. Commissions of engineers were sent to investigate and 
report on the most available route, with the result of that across Nicaragua, via 
the San Juan River and Lake Nicaragua, being given the preference. 

One thing stood in the way of this, the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850, 
which still held good in spite of various effiDrts for its repeal. This treaty 
established a joint control between the United States and Great Britain over 
any canal that might be made, an arrangement by no means satisfactory in case 
the United States should construct it alone. As this treaty had wrecked several 
efforts to carry a canal bill through Congress, a new treaty was negotiated in 
1900, but failed of acceptance, as it did not remove the old difficulty. Finally, 
in 1901, a second treaty was prepared by Secretary Hay and Lord Pauncefote, the 
British Ambassador, in which the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty was formally set 
aside, and the United States given sole control of the canal ; which, however, 
was to be free and open to the vessels of all nations. This treaty was ratified 
by the Senate on December 16, 1901. 
19 



500 THE SCHLEY COURT OF INQUIRY. 

Bills for the construction of a canal at the cost of the United States were 
now introduced into both Houses of Congress, the estimated cost being $189,- 
000,000. The House bill was passed early in January, 1902, with only two 
negative votes. But before the Senate could act the situation took on a new phase. 
The Panama Canal, partly excavated by the De Lesseps Company, and upon 
which a new company had been engaged, was offered to the United States at a 
cost of $40,000,000. As it was about two-fifths finished, it was estimated that 
at this price it could be completed more cheaply than the Nicaragua Canal. 
It presented other advantages also, and the commission now reported in its 
fi?vor. The Senate, however, deferred action upon the subject. 

THE PANAMA CANAL. 

As a result of the offer of sale by the French Panama Canal Company, 
and the subsequent report in favor of the Panama route, under the new circum- 
stances, by the canal commission, a treaty was negotiated with Colombia on 
January 22, 1903, giving to the United States the requisite powers to construct 
a canal across the Isthmus of Panama, with "the use and control " of a strip of 
territory five kilometers (three miles) wide on each side of the canal, all the 
requisite right of neutrality and defence being guaranteed. For these rights 
and privileges the United States was to pay Colombia $10,000,000, and after the 
first nine years a rental of $250,000 annually. 

On June 19th, the Senate passed a bill in accordance with this treaty, agreeing 
to pay the French company $40,000,000 for its rights in the unfinished canal, 
and to Colombia such sum as might be agreed upon, and authorizing the Presi- 
dent, in case the Panama route should not be acquired, to take steps toward the 
construction of a canal by the Nicaragua route. The Republic of Colombia 
was given eight months from January 22 for the ratification of the treaty, little 
doubt being felt on this point ; but the Senate of that country, for reasons not 
clearly defined, rejected the treaty. 

This led to an unlooked-for result. The people of Panama, angered at the 
prospective loss of the canal, which tliey ardently desired, proclaimed a revolu- 
tion and the establishment of an independent republic on November 3d. From 
that time events moved rapidly. A brief bombardment of the city of Panama 
by a Colombian gunboat on the 3d, the landing of United States marines to pro- ' 
tect the railway property on the 4th, the evacuation of Colon by the Colombian j 
troops on the 5th, the tentative recognition of the new government of Panama 
by the United States on the Gtli, and the reception of Philippe Bunau-Varilla 
as Minister from the new republic on the 13th, were the chief occuri-ences. 

On November 18th a canal treaty between the United States and 
Panama was signed by Secretary Hay and Minister Varilla, and was ratified 



\ 



PAN-AMERICAN CONGRESS. 561 

shortly afterward by the authorities of both governments. This treaty dif- 
fered from the previous one, in favor of the United States, in the following par- 
ticulars : It conceded a strip of five miles wide on each side of the canal, a per- 
petual lease, and absolute control by the United States of the canal strip in 
police, judicial and sanitary matters, while the $10,000,000 bonus and the an- 
nual lease were to be paid to Panama instead of Columbia. 

Congress immediately enacted the laws necessary to carry into effect the 
treaty, providing to meet the total estimated cost of two hundred million dollars 
and for a commission of seven to superintend its construction under the direc- 
tion of the war department. By the opening of 1905 tlie work was commenced. 

PAN-AMERICAN CONGRESS, 

On October 22, 1901, there met in the city of Mexico a congress of dele- 
gates from the United States and the various other American Republics, to con- 
sider questions of policy concerning the relations of the peoples of the Western 
Continent. The most important subject dealt with by this Pan-American 
Congress, as it was called, was that of international arbitration. An agreement 
was made to adopt the regulations made at the Hague Arbitration Conference, 
and a majority of the delegates went so far as to favor compulsory arbitration. 
This failed through the opposition of Chili, unanimous approval being necessary. 

THE SCHLEY COURT OF INQUIRY. 

A more immediate subject of interest was the action of the Naval Court of 
Inquiry convened at the request of Admiral Schley to investigate his conduct 
during the war with Spain. Since this war a controversy had existed between 
his friends and those of Admiral Sampson, one party claiming for Schley, the 
other for Sampson, the honor of commanding in the great fight with the Spanish 
squadron at Santiago. A scurrilous attack made upon Schley by the author of 
a history of the United States Navy, an extreme Sampson partisan, was the 
immediate cause of Admiral Schley's attempt to obtain vindication. 

The court convened at Washington, September 12, 1901, with Admiral 
Dewey as presiding ofiicer and Admirals Benham and Ramsay as the remaining 
members. Its decision was made public on December 13th. In this decision 
the majority of the court, while giving Schley credit for courage, found him 
blamable in several important particulars, including the famous " loop," or 
turn of the " Brooklyn " away from the Spanish vessels. 

Admiral Dewey gave a minority report, in which he sustained Schley in most 
of these particulars, and said further : " He was in absolute command, and is 
entitled to the credit due to such commanding ofiicer for the glorious victory 
■which resulted in the total destruction of the Spanish ships." 



562 ADMINISTRATION OF ROOSEVELT. 

Secretary of the Navy Long approved of the majority finding of the court, 
whereupon Admiral Schley made a personal appeal to the President for a 
revision of the case. After a full study of the evidence, Eoosevelt dismissed 
the whole affair, with the implication that neither of the contestants had won 
any special honor, remarking that no action had been taken on any shij) " in 
obedience to the orders of either Sampson or Schley, save on their own two 
vessels. It was a caiJtain's fight." This decision was soon followed by the 
death of Admiral Sampson, which took place May 6, 1902. 

EXPOSITIONS OF ART AND INDUSTRY. 

The Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo closed at the beginning of Novem- 
ber, 1901, and on December 1st there was inaugurated at Cliarleston, S. C, a 
South Carolina Inter-state and West Indian Exposition, to remain open for six 
months. 

This exposition was opened by President Roosevelt, who touched an electric 
button in the White House, at Washington, and set the machinery in motion. It 
embraced a general exhibit of the results of industry in the South, while many 
Northern States and a number of the West India Islands contributed. While 
on a smaller scale than the Buffalo Exposition, the buildings were artistic and 
handsome, and the exhibits highly attractive, reflecting great credit on the 
enterprise and industry of the South. An exposition on a much larger scale, to 
be held at St. Louis in 1903, was projected, in commemoration of the purchase 
from France in 1803 of the great territory known as Louisiana. The securing 
of this vast tract of land, from which a considerable number of States have since 
been made, was an event of vital importance in our history, and worthy of com- 
memoration on the grandest scale. Congress took the first step towards the pro- 
posed exposition on March 3, 1901, by appropriating |5,000,000 towards it, on 
the condition that the company should secure $10,000,000. A tract of ground 
embracing 1,190 acres was secured, and the work of preparation actively began. 

Among the events of the period with which we are now concerned, one of 
great importance was the great sums of money given for public purposes by 
wealthy individuals, especially by Andrew Carnegie, who had recently with- 
drawn from business with an enormous fortune, and John D. Rockefeller, the 
fabulously rich head of the Standard Oil Corporation. Carnegie's gifts, at first 
confined to the establishing of libraries in various cities, soon extended to em- 
brace other objects, such as the Carnegie Institution of Research at Washington, 
to which he has given in all $25,000,000, a hero fund, to reward the performers 
of heroic acts, and a peace fund of 110,000,000 to be applied in the furtherance 
of international peace. The gifts of Rockefeller have been mainly for educa- 
tional purposes, especially for the endowment of the University of Chicago. 



PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT'S MESSAGE. 563 

EVENTS OF 1902. 

President Roosevelt's message to the Fifty-seventh Congress, at its opening 
session, was looked for with intense interest. During the brief period in which 
he had occupied the presidential chair he had won popular applause, while faith 
in his sturdy integrity and admiration for his stalwart independence of character 
gained him friends in all parties. But the exact stand he would take on the 
great public questions of the day was not known, and the people awaited his 
message with a degree of anxiety. 

The documeut, when issued, was therefore read with avidity. It showed 
the hand of a practiced author and clear thinker, and its treatment of the varied 
topics reviewed was held to be able and promising. The hand of the earnest 
reformer, yet of the self-contained statesman, was evident throughout. 

Several of the problems referred to in the President's message became 
subjects of Congressional action. Among these was the canal question, already 
mentioned, and the passage of a bill regulating tariff charges upon Philippine 
commerce. The tariff on exports from Porto Rico had been abolished by 
President McKinley, in accordance with the terms of the act of Congress in 
the summer of 1901. On March 8, 1902, a Philippine tariff bill was enacted 
by which the duties ou exports to the United States were reduced twenty-five 
per cent. 

The war taxes imposed to provide funds for the war with Spain were founa, 
after the expenses of this war had been met, to yield an excess of revenue. In 
consequence, a strong demand for their repeal was made. The principal stamp 
taxes had been taken off in 1901, and in 1902 the remainder of these taxes 
were repealed, the country returning to its ante-war revenue status. Another 
Congressional measure of importance had to do with the act for the exclusion of 
the Chinese. This expired in the spring of 1902, and a renewal of the " yellow- 
peril," in the form of a great influx of Chinese laborers, was threatened. This 
was prevented by a re-enactment of the law. It was made to ajjply also to the 
Philippine Islands, which had hitherto been fi-eely open to Chinese immigration. 
Still another Congressional measure was the establishment of a permanent census 
bureau. The work in this field of labor had so increased that it was deemed 
necessary to keep it in continuous action. 

CUBAN RECIPROCITY. 

Among the measures considered during this session of Congress, one of 
the most important had to do with Cuban affairs. In accordance with the con- 
stitution adopted for the new Republic of Cuba, an election was held on the last 
day of 1901, Tomas Estrada Palma being chosen for President. The final 
act in giving full independence to the island republic was the withdrawal of 
United States troops, which was fixed to take place May 20, 1902. 



564 CUBAN RECIPROCITY. 

But the Cubans found their new independence likely to prove a serious 
economic burden. Cuba being a foreign country, only temporarily under Ameri- 
can supervision, the full tariff charges of the United States revenue law were 
enforced against its exports. Of these the most important was sugar, whose 
production was the leading industry of the island. This product was chiefly 
consumed in the United States. But it could not compete profitably with the 
beet-sugar of Europe, and unless some tariff concession was made the sugar 
planters would be in peril of ruin. 

President Roosevelt, feeling that we owed some degree of protection to the 
country which we had launched on the high seas of independence, advocated in 
his message a measure of tariff reciprocity with Cuba, and a bill was introduced 
in Congress for a partial remission of the duty on sugar. This bill not being 
acted on during the regular session of Congress, ending March 4, 1903, an extra 
session of the Senate was called to consider a treaty of reciprocity negotiated 
with Cuba. This was favorably acted on by the Senate, though with the provi- 
sion that it should not become operative until approved by Congress. 

To expedite this approval, which might be delayed in the regular session, 
the President called Congress into extra session, to meet November 9th, and the 
measure passed the House on the 19th. The Senate, however, declined to act 
until the regular session, so that final approval was deferred until December 16tli. 
The President signed the treaty on the following day, December 17, 1903. 

The treaty provided that a reduction of 20 per cent, from the rates of the 
Dingley tariff bill of 1897 should be made on all articles of Cuban production 
imported into the United States ; Cuba agreeing in return to make reductions 
from her tariff rates ranging from 20 to 40 per cent, on all imported articles of 
United States production. Thus was settled a question which had remained 
open since 1898. 

THE COAL STRIKE. 

Tlie Roosevelt administration was notable for events of great importance in 
the industrial field. A meeting was held in New York, December 16, 1901, by 
the National Civic Federation to consider the best means of promoting indus- 
trial peace. It resulted in the creation of an " Industrial Department of the 
'National Civic Federation," composed of twelve representatives each of em- 
ployers, of workmen, and of the public, Marcus A. Hanna heading the first, 
Samuel Gompers the second, and ex-President Cleveland the third. 

Several strikes were successfully settled by this new agency, but it failed in 
its effort to settle the greatest industrial upheaval of the period, a dispute be- 
tween the anthracite coal miners of Pennsylvania and the operators, which 
ended in a serious strike, nearly one hundred and fifty thousand miners being 



ll 



THE COAL STRIKE. 565 

involved. This strike began on May 15, 1902, and continued until late in the 
autumn, by which time anthracite coal had grown so scarce and high in price as 
to cause intense fear of suffering from cold. Coal went up to $20 and more per 
ton and was hard to get at any price. 

The situation at length grew so intolerable that President Roosevelt sought to 
settle it, and the workmen were finally induced to accept the decision of a commis- 
sion of arbitration appointed by him. In consequence, on October 20th, the strike 
came to an end. Tlie connuissioners chosen were Judge George Gray, of the 
U. S. Circuit Court; General John M. Wilson, U. S. Army ; Edward W. Parker, 
Edward E. Clark, Thomas H. Watkins, Bishop John L. Spalding, and Carroll 
D. Wright, U. S. Commissioner of Labor. The commission began its sessions on 
October 24th, and continued in session for several months. Its final decision was 
accepted with satisfaction by both parties, each gaining some of the points in 
contention, and this ended a labor dispute which had affected the people at large 
more widely and seriously than any other ever known in this country. 

THE BOUNDARY OF ALASKA. 

The boundary between Alaska and Canada, which had been a subject of 
serious dispute since the discovery of the valuable gold deposits of the Klondike, 
was finally adjusted in 1903 in favor of the United States. Canada alleged 
that the true meaning of the boundary established in 1825 by treaty between 
Russia and Great Britain was that the line should not follow the windings of 
the coast at ten leagues inland, but should be measured from a line intersecting 
headlands and promontories along the coast. This would have given Canada 
the head of Lynn Canal and access to the sea without crossing United States 
territory. 

After long contention, a Boundary Commission was created in 1903, the 
American Commissioners being Secretary of War Elihu Root, Senator Henry 
C. Lodge, and ex-Senator George Turner. Canada was represented by Justice 
Aylesworth and Sir Louis Jette, and Great Britain by Lord Chief Justice Al- 
verstone. The award of the commission, signed October 20th, sustained the Ameri- 
can contention. Lord Alverstone assenting and the two Canadians dissenting; 
the United States being accorded a strip of land fifteen to thirty miles wide 
from the mouth of Portland Canal at 54° 41' N. to Mount St. Elias. This deci- 
sion was bitterly resented in Canada, which claimed that it had been unjustly 
dealt with and deprived of its true rights ; but the award of the Commission 
was final. 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE. 

To the eight executive departments of the Government — those of State, 
War, Navy, Treasury, Post-office, Justice, the Interior and Agriculture— a 



»66 DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE. 

ninth was added in February, 1903, entitled the " Department of Commerce 
and Industry," to take control of the rajjidly growing interests of exiwrts, man- 
ufactures, transportation and internal commerce, in which the United Stales had 
reached the head of the great nations of the world. To indicate the maoiiitude 
of the business interests involved, it may be stated that the Bureau of Statistics, 
which became a part of the new department, estimated the internal commerce ot 
the country alone at $20,000,000,000, or equal to the entire international com- 
merce of the world. George B. Cortelyou, who had served as secretary to the 
President during several administrations, was placed at the head of the new 
department, and became a ninth member of the President's cabinet. 

THE REGULATION OP TRUSTS. 

In President Roosevelt's message to Congress of December 2, 1902, an 
earnest appeal was made for legislation for the regulation and control of indus- 
trial organizations, or trusts, to prevent their becoming monopolies, and in this 
way operating against the public welfare. In response to this appeal Congi-ess 
passed a bill for the prevention of discrimination or the giving of rebates in 
railroad freight charges, making favoritism of this kind punishable by fine and 
imprisonment. 

The most important attempt to develop a monopoly in recent years was the 
formation of the Northern Securities Company, wliicli, by purchasing the greater 
part of the stock of the Great Northern Railroad and the Northern Pacific 
Railroad, tended to prevent competition between these parallel lines. The 
United States Circuit Court for Minnesota gave a decision that this act consti- 
tuted a merger, and was contrary to the Sherman anti-trust law — a decision 
which affected all similar cases. An appeal was made to the United States Su- 
preme Court, before which the question was brought for argument on December 
14, 1903, and which, early in 1904, decided in favor of the government. 

An event of considerable interest in 1903 was the completion and opening 
to service of one of the longest of submarine telegraph cables, laid on the beil of 
the Pacific ocean from San Francisco to Manila by the Commercial Cable Com- 
pany. This cable is 7,846 miles long, being about fifty miles loiiger than the 
rival cable from British Columbia to Australia. It stops at three American 
island points in its route — at Hawaii, Midway Island and Guam — thus connecting 
all the important American island territory in the Pacific with the excejition of 
Samoa. The first messas^e over this long submarine cable was sent by President 
Roosevelt to Governor Taft at Manila on July 4, 1903. It completed a circle 
around the world via the cables from Manila to China, and thence by way of 
India and Europe to the United States, and after communicating with Governor 
Taft the President sent a message around the world, hearing from himself in 



I 



WOBLD'S FAIR. 5G7 

twelve minutes after speaking across 20,000 miles of land and sea. In 1907 the 
cable was extended from Manila to Shanghai, giving this country direct tele- 
graphic communication with China. 

One of the greatest and most splendid World's Fairs ever held was opened 
at St. Louis in 1904, and attracted vast numbers of admiring visitors. This was 
prepared as a centennial celebration of the purchase from France of the great 
Louisiana territory in 1803, the hundredth anniversary of which had now 
arrived. This important purchase, which formed the basis of nearly all the 
States between the Mississippi river and the Rocky Mountains, covered a vast 
extent of territory, enormously increasing the previous area of the United States, 
and its celebration by the States concerned was regarded as a highly desirable 
project. 

St. Louis, as the metropolis of the territory concerned, was selected as tlie 
appropriate site of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, as it was called, and active 
preparations for its adequate celebration went on from the opening of the cen- 
tury. The United States contributed $5,000,000 towards the expenses, St. Louis 
an equal sum, and its citizens a third $5,000,000. Large sums were also con- 
tributed by State and foreign approj^riations and by concessions of privileges 
within the Fair, sufficient funds being {provided for preparations on a magnificent 
scale. 

The site selected for the Exposition covered the ample space of 1,190 acres, 
much exceeding that of the Chicago Fair, which was 733 acres. On this a score 
of large buildings were erected, containing 128 acres of exhibit floor space, an 
area which far exceeded that of any preceding world's fair. The space covered 
at Chicago was 82 acres. To these exhibit palaces were added a large number 
of State, foreign and other buildings, it being estimated that there were about 
1,000 structures of all kinds on the ground. 

The main buildings were in many cases of enormous dimensions, those 
devoted to Liberal Arts and Mining and Metallurgy being each 750 by 525 feet, 
the Government Building 800 by 260 feet, tlie Palaces of Manufactures and of 
Varied Industries each 525 by 1,200 feet, and the Transportation Palace 559 by 
over 1,300 feet. Still larger, in fact much the largest building ever devoted to 
exhibition purposes, was the Palace of Agriculture, 500 by 1,600 feet. 

These structures were admirably grouped for picturesque effect, the contour 
of the ground adapting itself to a splendid spectacular treatment. The space 
selected was to a considerable extent forested, giving an opportunity for special 
grove effects, while a dominating hill, 1 00 feet high and sloping gradually to 
the plain below, gave the architects an admirable advantage of which they 
eagerly availed themselves. 

The summit of this hill was crowned by the most effective of the buildings, 



568 WORLD'S FAIR. 

a grand Festival Hall, which loomed above and dominated the whole scene. 
Above it rose a whole dome, 140 feet in diameter, unrivalled in size except by 
the great dome of St. Peter's at Rome, and rising 250 feet into the air. This 
magnificent hall formed the centre of a broad, gently sloping structure, known 
as the Colonnade of States, which terminated at either end in a circular pavillion 
140 feet high, and corresponding somewhat in architectural treatment with the 
Festival Hall. The Colonnade itself was 52 feet high and over a quarter mile 
in length, forming a great arc of a circle along the brow of the hill, crowning the 
crest of a natural amphitheatre 70 feet above the level of the adjoining country, 
and displaying at intervals along its length mammoth allegorical .statues. It 
bore a general resemblance to the Peristyle at Chicago. 

On the plain below were grouped the exhibition palaces, laid out on broad 
avenues radiating from this common centre. Fronting them, on the sloping hill- 
side, a magnificent garden scene was visible, a lawn covering the whole ample 
sjjace, and gleaming with brilliant flowers of every hue and form, a sjjlendid riot 
of color and floral decorations. 

The final feature of effect lay in the three great cascades, which burst 
out from the front of the Festival Hall and each pavillion and poui-ed in glid- 
ing beauty down the slope to a large lagoon at its foot. At top these were 50 
feet wide, broadening downward to 152 feet. The total fall was 95 feet, and the 
fall of the rush of water down the slope 300 feet. This water was continually 
lifted back by unseen pumps from the lagoon, to pour again continually down 
the slope, 90,000 gallons being thus handled every minute. At night in par- 
ticular, when brilliant with colored electric lights, these cascades jiresented an 
entrancing effect. 

The electric display was, in fact, the crowning glory of the whole exhibition, 
the Electrical and all the other buildings being brilliantly and profusely illumi- 
nated at night, as were also the Festival Hall and colonnades. The whole 
exposition, in fact, was on a scale of magnificence that rendered it tlie most 
imposing and beautiful architectural display ever seen in an international 
exhibition. 

As in the case of the Columbian Exposition, the time allowance for prepara- 
tion proved insufficient, and the year 1903 found the buildings far from comple- 
tion. In consequence, an official dedication was all that could be undertaken in 
that year, and it became necessary to postpone the opening of the exposition 
until 1904, it continuing from April 1st to December 1st of that year. The total 
attendance was 18,741,073, as compared with 27,539,521 at the Columbian Ex- 
position, indicating a falling off" of public interest in such displays. The 
Exposition closed free of debt, but without funds to pay dividends to the citizen 
subscribers. 



ROOSEVELT'S ADMINISTRATION. 569 

lu the autumn of 1904 President Roosevelt, though he had been elected as 
Vice-President, had served for three years as head of the government of the 
United States. During these years of administrative activity he had, by his 
vigorous energy and fearless integrity, won a large following in all parties, and 
when the time came for nominating candidates for the coming term, the name of 
Roosevelt loomed high above all others in the councils of the Republican party. 
He had made enemies by his crusade against the corporations, but he had won 
the admiring ajipreciation and regard of the people, and there was no doubt of 
his receiving a much lai-ger vote than any other man before the convention. He 
was, in consequence, unanimously chosen as the standard-bearer of his j^arty, 
with Charles W. Fairbanks, of Indiana, for Vice-President. 

The Democratic party nominated Judge Alton B. Parker, of New York, and 
Henry G. Davis, of West Virginia, as its candidates. Of the other parties in 
the field, the Socialist chose Eugene V. Debs, of Indiana, and Benjamin Han- 
ford, of New York, for its candidates ; the Prohibitionist, Silas C. Swallow, of 
Pennsylvania, and George W. Carroll, of Texas ; the People's, Thomas E. Wat- 
son, of Georgia, and Thomas H. Tibbies, of Nebraska ; and the Social Labor, 
Charles H. Corrigan, of New York, and William W. Cox, of Illinois. 

In the party campaigns that followed there were no very distinct points of 
principle to maintain. The Imperialist and anti-Imperialist war-cries of four 
years before had disappeared, the tariff" was not a very live question, and the 
general distinction in national views between the two main parties had ceased to 
be great. Roosevelt's course during his late term of office was highly eulogized 
by his supporters and strongly denounced by his opponents; but that he was the 
people's choice was indicated by the election results, he receiving a popular vote 
of 7,624,489 against 5,082,764 for Parker. Of the minor party candidates, Debs, 
the Socialistic nominee, stood first, with 402,186 popular votes. The electoral 
vote was 336 for Roosevelt and 140 for Parker, the Republican majority being 
196. The result of the election was an extraordinary endorsement of President 
Roosevelt and his administration, his popular plurality of 2,541,725 being three 
times the greatest ever polled for a presidential candidate. In consequence, he 
entered upon office in his new administration with the feeling that he was 
decidedly the choice of the people, and that he could pursue with full popular 
approval the policies he had advocated during his first term in office. He had 
previously announced that he would not be again a candidate for the Presidency, 
an attitude which left him the freer to advocate radical legislation. 

Though President Roosevelt had taken over President McKinley's cabinet 
in 1901, several changes were made in it during the succeeding years, the most 
important arising from the death of John Hay, Secretary of State, in 1905, Elihu 
Root, of New York, taking his place, and the appointment ia 1904 of William 



570 ROOSEVELT'S ADMINISTRATION. 

H. Taft as Secretary of War, which post Root had previously held. The other 
raeiubei's of the 1905 cabinet were Leslie M. Shaw, Secretary of the Treasury, 
Charles J. Bonaparte, Secretary of the Navy, Ethan A. Hitchcock, Secretary of 
the Interior, William H. Moody, Attorney-General, George R. Cortelyou, Post- 
master-General, James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture, and Victor B. Metcalf, 
Secretary of Commerce and Labor. 

During his first administration President Roosevelt had endeavored to keep 
his word to sustain the McKinley policies, and had not been specially active in 
recommending new legislation. But in his second administration, feeling that 
he had the approval of the people, he launched out boldly into the legislative 
field, making vigorous efforts to have laws passed in accordance with the reform 
recommendations of his fornier messages. 

What he did in his first administration was to set the community thinking. 
He actively advocated a moral uplift in business methods and conditions and 
legislative control of the developing Trusts. These great business corporations 
had been growing in wealth and extent with extraordinary rapidity, and some 
of them, through long immunity, had fallen into the bad habit of paying little 
heed to the laws. Against illegal methods of any kind, or by any persons, rich 
or poor, the President set himself strenuously, saying : " I have no use for tlie 
sort of man who is always arrayed against wealth because it is wealth, or in favor 
of capital because it is capital. ... I distrust the man who takes any other 
attitude than that of opposing capital when it is wrong, and just as vigorously 
oijposing labor when it is wrong." 

This was the programme he diligently pursued. The anti-Trust law had 
been repeatedly and openly violated, without action on the part of the govern- 
ment, and when the Attorney -General in 1903 filed suit to dissolve the Northern 
Securities Company, a great corporation accused of violating this law, there was 
amazement and consternation. Other suits of this kind were brought from time 
to time, victories were won by the government in the courts, and the ofienders 
were gradually made to understand that the laws had been passed not simply to 
adorn the statute book, but to be respected and enforced. Yet every effort to 
prevent the consolidation of business concerns into corporations proved unsuc- 
cessful, and in his second administration the President, convinced that the pro- 
cess of concentration of business interests was a natural one that would inevitably 
go on, turned his attention to the policy of government control and regulation of 
these threatening associations of capitalists. 

One of the most significant features of the administration, the one that was 
to give President Roosevelt an European reputation, was his effort to advance 
the cause of international peace. The first step in this direction was taken in 
October, 1904, when a suggestion was made to the foreign powers which had 



BOOSEVELTS AJ)}fTXlSTRATION. 571 

sent delegates to the Hague Peace Conference of 1899 that a new conference 
should be held, at which certain questions concerning the rights of neutrals in 
times of war should be especially considered. Favorable replies from the lead- 
ing nations were received ; but, in view of the war then in existence between 
Russia and Japan, a postponement was suggested until this great conflict should 
end. In consequence the conference was postponed until 1907, when a second 
meeting of peace delegates was held. As the Emperor of Russia had issued the 
first call, it was deemed proper that the second should be made by him, and this 
was accordingly done. 

President Roosevelt's action in this matter was preceded by another move- 
ment in the interest of Y>eace which excited the admiration of foreign nations. 
During 1904 and 1905 a war of frightful dimensions had been going on between 
Russia and Japan, at immense cost in men and money. The meed of victory 
had fallen to Japan, and Russia had assumed what seemed to many a hopeless 
defensive position against its triumphant enemy. The feeling was general that 
nothing could be gained and much would be lost by a continuance of the con- 
flict. But diplomatic caution kept all the i)owers of Europe discreetly silent on 
this subject, and it was left to President Roosevelt to take the initiative of pro- 
posing a treaty of i)eace, which he did with unusual non-diplomatic impetuosity. 

His proposition was received with gratification by the wavering powers, and 
with a sense of relief by the courts of Europe and a feeling of admiration for the 
man who had cut the Gordian knot which had baffled them, and after a brief 
correspondence was accepted by Russia and Japan. The plenipotentiaries of 
the two powers reached this country in August, 1905. In view of its being the 
warm summer season, the locality of the conference was changed from Washing- 
ton to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the meetings being held in rooms prepared 
for the purpose in the navy yard at that town. 

Roosevelt did not confine himself to the mere suggestion of a peace confer- 
ence, but took an active part in the subsequent proceedings. Three of the Japan- 
ese demands were refused by Russia, and a deadlock ensued between the 
delegates. The President now took active hold of the situation, and summoned 
Baron Rosen, on the part of Russia, and Baron Kaneko, on that of Japan, to 
meet and confer with him at his home in Oyster Bay, Long Island. He also 
communicated directly with the Emperors of Russia and Japan. As a result the 
difficulty was smoothed out, Japan modified its demands, and a treaty of peace 
was signed on the 5th of September, 1905. 

This was not the only movement of President Roosevelt in the interest of 
peace. The rival claims of France and Germany in Morocco about this time 
grew so tense that war was threatened between the two nations. This dread 
contingency was avoided by the American President, who tendered the good 



572 ROOSEVELT'S ADMINISTRATION. 

offices of the United States in the settlement of the difficulty between the powers, 
became an intermediator among all those having claims, right or wrong, upon 
Morocco, and this initiated the movement that brought about the conference of 
the powers at Algeciras, Spain, and the settlement of the points in dispute. 

The value of these peace-producing movements of President Roosevelt was 
fully acknowledged in Europe, and an interesting recognition of this was made 
in 1906, when the Nobel Prize of $40,000, given annually to the person who 
had done the most in the interests of peace, was adjudged to the American Presi- 
dent. In 1910, when visiting Cliristiana, Norway, lie made an address before 
the king and a distinguished audience, including the Nobel Prize Committee, in 
which he returned thanks for the honor conferred upon him by the committee, 
and offered a suggestion in the cause of peace of the most radical and far-reaching 
character. He proposed that the leading nations should unite into a League of 
Peace, not alone to keep the peace among themselves, but to prevent it from 
being broken by others, some form of international police power being estab- 
lished to force hostile nations to settle their disputes by peaceful methods. 

An interesting event of the year 1905 was the bringing to this country of 
the remains of John Paul Jones, the famous naval here of the Revolution, who 
had won in 1779 the world-renowned victory of the Bon Homme Richard over 
the Serapis. He had died in 1792 at Paris, and all trace of his place of burial 
had long been lost. It was finally discovered in an obscure corner of Paris, 
where the site of the ancient cemetery had long been used for stabling purposes. 
The corpse, when recovered, proved to be remarkably well preserved, having 
been embalmed and enclosed in a lead coffin. The features were sufficiently 
recognizable to establish the fact that the corpse was undoubtedly that of Paul 
Jones. Discovered in April, 1905, it was brought to the Naval Academy at 
Annapolis in July, and there interred with appropriate ceremonies in American 
soil. 

On the 17th of April, 1906, occurred one of the greatest disasters in the 
history of American cities. On that day San Francisco was visited by an 
earthquake of such severity as to hurl tlie business section and much of the 
remainder of it in ruins to the earth, burying many of its inhabitants under the 
fallen walls of their dwellings. The earthquake was only the beginning of the 
disaster : fires broke out in dozens of places and conflagrations were soon burning 
hotly in all parts of the business section of the city. To fight the fire was next 
to impossible. The earthquake had broken the water-mains, and the engines 
were practically useless. New terrors arose as fresh tremors shook the ground, 
the people fled on all sides in the wildest terror, and it seemed as if the metropolis 
of the Far West was doomed. 

The only hope that remained to the authorities was to endeavor to check 



ROOSEVELT'S ADMINISTEATION. 573 

the progress of the flames by blowing up buildings in its course with dynamite. 
For two days the fire burned on unchecked in the business section, and the resi- 
dence section, which had suffered less, was finally saved by blowing up a mile in 
length of dwellings on the east side of the fashionable Van Ness avenue. This 
was done by engineers from the naval station at Mare Island, and proved suc- 
cessful in finally staying the devastating flames. 

The disaster was by no means confined to San Francisco, the earthquake 
wave extendins; throu£;h a distance of 180 miles. The beautiful cities of Santa 
Rosa and San Jose went down in ruins ; the Leland Stanford, Jr., University 
at Palo Alto was badly wrecked, and various other cities and towns suffered 
more or less severely. Fortunately, the loss of life was small when compared 
with the extent of the disaster, the estimate of deaths being fixed at about 1,500, 
the injured being far more numerous. 

Never had there been a greater need for aid from the charitably disposed, 
and never had it been more amply responded to. The supply of food was in 
great part destroyed, and food trains and vessels were despatched in all haste 
from every available quarter to the suffering city. Money was equally needed, 
very many of the citizens being homeless and destitute, and contributions were 
so freely poured in that the total sum contributed from private and public sources 
is estimated at $20,000,000. There was abundance to relieve the unfortunate 
and to provide many of them with work and homes. The ruined city was restored 
with marvelous rapidity, and after a few years hardly a relic of the disaster was 
to be seen. 

Meanwhile Cuba, which had been restored to the government of its own 
citizens early in 1902, proved incapable of self-government, a revolutionary 
movement breaking out in 1906, which went far beyond the power of the ruling 
authorities to overcome. As the rights which the United States had retained in 
the island were imperilled by this movement, and President Palma asked for 
intervention on behalf of his government. Secretary of War Taft was sent to 
Cuba to observe the aspect of affairs. His observations led him to take tempo- 
rar}' possession in the name of tlie United States until peaceful conditions would 
be restored. This was accomplished by the end of 1908, a new President and 
Vice-President being elected in that year, and the people settling down to peace- 
ful industry. In January, 1909, the American troops were again withdrawn, 
and Cuba left once more to tlie control of its own people. 

The greatest work of engineering construction ever attempted by the United 
States is that of the Panama Canal. It miglit justly be called the greatest work 
ever attempted by any modern country but for the fact that De Lesseps and his 
French company attempted this same work. But the French effort was under- 
taken with ill-advised haste and no proper conception of the magnitude of the 



574 ROOSEVELT'S ADMINISTRATION. 

work, which proved far beyond their powers, and fell into the hands of the 
United States with much the greater part of the remaining work to be done. It 
was on February 23, 1904, that the treaty between this country and Panama went 
into effect, and on April 23, 1904, that the French company's price of |40,000,- 
000 for their partly finished work was paid, and the United States put in con- 
dition to go on with the enterprise. 

There was work of two kinds to be done. The canal zone was to be made 
a fit place for human beings to live in, and excavation on a grand scale was to 
be accomplished. The first of these requirements had been neglected by the 
French company, with the result that the death list grew to frightful propor- 
tions. If the work was to be successful, this needed to be prevented, and a 
drastic era of sanitation had to precede that of excavation. The same sanitary 
methods which in 1898 had converted Cuba from a pest hole, in which yellow 
fever ran rampant, into a healthful place of abode needed to be apjilied in the 
isthmus, where yellow fever and malaria had long held constant abode. 

While the canal zone was thus being made fit to live in, not much in the 
way of excavation could be attempted, and daring the first two years little actual 
digging took place. But during this time yellow fever was virtually extirpated 
and the general health conditions of the canal zone were vastly improved. The 
cities, of Panama and Colon were supplied with pure water and a modern sys- 
tem of sewage, satisfactory quarters were built for employees, a supply of whole- 
some food at reasonable prices was assured, and the whole district fitted for 
comfortable and healthful residence. Not until this had been accomplished did 
the work of excavation become active. 

President Roosevelt visited Panama in 1906 and inspected the work. This 
was an incident of imjDortance, since it was the fii'st time an American President 
had gone beyond the dominion of the flag. It was paralleled by President Taft 
when, in 1909, he crossed the Mexican border and held an interview with 
President Diaz, of Mexico, and, in 1910, when he followed Roosevelt's example 
of visiting Panama and inspecting the canal work. 

The work on the Panama Canal was enormous in dimensions and expense. 
Its length from deep water on either side was about fifty miles, and at Culebra, 
a low place in the mountain chain that traversed the isthmus, a hill of several . 
hundred feet elevation and several miles in width had to be cut through. Even 
with the lock canal decided upon, with a summit elevation of 85 feet above sea 
level, an enormous amount of work needed to be done. The canal was to have 
a minimum depth of 41 feet and a width of 300 feet at its narrowest point in 
Culebra cut, widening to over 1,000 feet for a considerable distance. In order to 
make it a lock canal, great dams had to be built, the principal being the immense 
Gatun dam, on the Caribbean side. This was nearly a mile and a half long 






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ROOSEVELT'S ADMINISTRATION. 575 

and 1,900 feet wide at bottom, its crest being 115 feet high. Great as was the 
work to be done, it was attacked with immense vigor, the most powerful dredging 
machines ever made being employed, and a small army of engineei's and laborers, 
over 27,000 in number, gradually accumulated. The estimated cost of the whole 
work reached the enormous sura of $400,000,000, and the total amount of excava- 
tion required was over 214,000,000 cubic yards. Of this about 90,000,000 had 
been removed by November 1, 1909, and the engineers saw their way clear to a 
completion of the work by 1914, promising that it would be ready for the safe 
passage of ships by January 1, 1915. Such is simply the story, up to the present 
date, of one of the greatest engineering works ever undertaken. 

The Panama Canal was distinctively a Roosevelt enterprise. It was begun, 
and largely carried through during his administration. He swept away with a free 
hand the obstacles in its way, and aided its progress with all the means at his 
command. Meanwhile, at home, he was winning the reputation of an executive 
of a new type, a man of quick decision, indomitable energy and strenuous 
activity, with a fixed determination to bring the great corporations under govern- 
ment control so far as lay within his power. Even while Vice-President he had 
said: "The State, and if necessary the nation, has got to possess the right of 
supervision and control as regards the great corporations which are its creatures." 
This was reiterated in message after message during his nearly eight years as 
President. He constantly hammered away at the monopolies which had arisen 
in the land, and to some extent succeeded in fettering them. 

In regard to foreign affairs he was equally active. He was a vigorous 
advocate of the Monroe doctrine; he succeeded in making many arbitration 
treaties with foreign countries — sixteen being concluded in 1901 with the 
American republics and seven with European nations ; and in other ways he 
made the power and influence of the United States felt abroad. One instance of 
this was when he succeeded in having the threatened trouble between Venezuela 
and several European powers submitted to the Hague court of arbitration, and a 
second was his sending to the court of Russia an American protest against the 
terrible Kishenev massacre. 

It was during his second term that President Roosevelt succeeded in gain- 
ing much of the reform legislation which he had so earnestly at heart. The year 
1906 was marked with some of the most important of this. A bill was passed for 
the regulation of railroad rates and the prevention of discrimination between 
shippers, which went far to bring to an end the evil of secret rebates which had 
done so much in building up the rich corporations and injuring or destroying 
smaller business enterprises. Other very important acts were passed for the 
benefit of the public. One of these was an act for stringent inspection of meats 
at the great slaughtering centres, and thus to bring to an end the prevailing 



576 ROOSEVELT'S ADMINISTEATIOX. 

custom of selling filthy and unwholesome food. A second was an act to prevent 
adulteration of foods, drugs, liquors, etc., requiring that all such articles should 
be labeled in a manner to indicate tlieir exact nature or contents. A third bill 
permitted the sale of alcohol for industrial jDurposes without payment of tax, if 
denatured or rendered unfit for drinking purposes. 

In 1907 an act was passed prohibiting any corporation from contributing 
money towards election exjienses. This had been freely done in past times, and 
it was well known that tlie railroad and other corj^orations expected and received 
legislation in their favor in return for these contributions. The act, therefore, 
was designed to put an end to an old agent of favoritism. The same evil condi- 
tion led to legislation prohibiting the giving of railroad passes, except in a few 
specified cases, these passes having been used as a minor form of bribery of 
legislators. 

Though he had won a reputation as an apostle of peace, President Roosevelt 
was alive to the necessity, under the existing warlike aspect of the nations, of 
providing against unforseen contingencies like that of the Spanish War of 1898, 
and of 25utting the country into a condition enabling it to defend itself in the 
event of any sudden hostile outbreak. The great oceans lying between the United 
States and the nations of Europe and Asia rendered this country to an extent 
immune against invasion by armies from abroad, and no need of a great military 
force was felt. If defence was needed, the ocean was likely to be its field, and a 
strong fleet was deemed of much greater importance than a strong army. With 
this in view the President was, during his whole term, insistent in advocating 
the building of battleships and coast defenses, with the result that when he left 
office the United States ranked among the great naval powers of the world. The 
Panama Canal was intended as an aid in this purpose, by enabling our fleet to 
be readily available alike in Atlantic and Pacific waters, and obviating the neces- 
sity of having two great naval establishments, one on each coast. 

For the old soldiers, especially those of the Civil War, he had a warm place 
in his heart. The amount paid out in pensions had grown enormously, and was 
a severe weight upon the government finances ; yet, in view of the fact that more 
than forty years had passed since the end of the war, and that death must soon 
carry off the veterans at a very rapid rate, he made a fresh movement in their 
favor, a General Service Pension Act being passed which gave to every man who 
had served in the war, whether injured or not, a liberal pension after he had 
reached his sixty-second year. 

Such were some of the results of President Roosevelt's manifold activities. 
We need speak here of but one more. In May, 1908, tliere was held in the 
White House, at his suggestion, a conference of the Governors of the States and 
Territories to consider the important question of how best to preserve and prevent 




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ROOSEVELT'S ADMINISTRATION. 577 

the wasteful use of the natural resources of the country. These were disappearing 
at an alarming rate. The forests were being shamefully destroyed through reck- 
less lumbering and devastating fires, which no adequate steps had been taken to 
prevent. The coal supply was being handled in a similar heedless manner ; 
ignorance and greed threatened to exhaust the fisheries, and the need of an exten- 
sion of the art of fish culture was evident ; the soil was being washed from the 
hills through the removal of its natural covering, choking the beds of the streams 
and aiding in the overflow of their waters ; the water-power of the country was 
being rapidly seized by private speculators. Those and other things called for 
honest and scientific regulation, either by the nation as a unit or by the States 
acting in harmony, and a National Conservation Commission was formed to take 
these matters in hand, while the conference of Governors led to the formation of 
a national " House of Governors " to meet each year and confer on matters 
affecting the interests of the States and the country at large. 

In this connection the question of irrigation of the arid lands of the West- 
ern States is of leading importance, there being many millions of acres capable 
of being reclaimed. The governmental relation to this work began with the 
Reclamation law of 1902, under which the United States government undertook 
to build irrigation works, consisting of great dams across the mountain streams, 
with canals to convey the waters from the reservoirs thus made to the fields. The 
land thus restored to fertility was to be sold to settlers at prices sufficient torej^ay 
tlie cost of construction, and thus yield fresh funds to continue the work until all 
the available waters had been -utilized. Under this law huge dams have been built 
in various parts of the western States, some of them of enormous size and difiicult 
construction, and millions of acres of former desert have been converted into 
fertile fields, the soil which formerly bore only the useless sage brush being now 
covered with waving harvests and fruitful orchards, and with the homes of an 
active and j^rosperous pojiulation. 

We have described a number of expositions of industry, celebrating several 
important historical anniversaries, chief among them the Centennial Exposition 
of 1876, the Columbian Exposition of 1893, and the Louisiana Purchase Exposi- 
tion of 1904. A fourth of these, on a much smaller scale, was the Jamestown 
Exposition of 1907, on the three-hundredth anniversary of the landing of Captain 
John Smith and his companions at Jamestown in 1607. 

This exposition was held in the waters and shores of Hampton Roads, near 
Norfolk, Virginia.^ To aid this Congress provided for an exhibit of the working 
of the government departments, and of the resources and products of Alaska and 
the island possessions of the United States. ; also for a great naval rendezvous in 
the waters made memorable by the famous battle of the IlonUor and JIe7-rimac. 
The exposition was formally opened by the President on April 26, but from lack 



578 ROOSEVELT'S ADMINISTRATION. 

of adequate preparation did not prove very successful in its land display. A 
great fleet of American and foreign warships, however, gathered on the historic 
adjoining waters, and their evolutions proved of much interest to the spectators, 
together with the various aquatic events which took place. A leading feature of 
the Exposition was the historical exhibit, the history of the country from 1607 
being graphically disjilayed and the co-operation of the chief historical societies 
and students of the country enlisted. 

The Pacific States first came into the field of display at this jieriod, an 
attractive exposition being held at Portland, Oregon, in 1905, commemorative 
of the celebrated Lewis and Clark expedition, and in 1909 the remarkable 
development of the Pacific region was commemorated by an attractive exhibition 
at Seattle, Washington, known as the Alaska- Yukon-Pacific Exposition. In 
1909 also a commemorative display of a diflferent kind was made at New York, 
the Hudson-Fulton Celebration this year being the three hundredth anniversary 
of the discovery of the Hudson river by Henry Hudson, while the hundredth 
anniversary of the first navigation of that river by a steamboat, built by Robert 
Fulton, has recently passed. Reproductions of Hudson's Half Moon and Fulton's 
Clermont were made, the two antique-appearing vessels repeating the fact of their 
prototypes by sailing up the river to Albany. The celebration lasted for a week, 
and had various other features of interest. 

By an act of Congress api^roved June 16, 1906, the preliminary steps were 
taken for adding a new State to the American Union, the State of Oklahoma, 
made up of the former Indian and Oklahoma Territories. The final step was 
taken November 16, 1907, when President Roosevelt signed the constitution of 
the new State and issued a proclamation announcing its admission to the Union. 
The act which provides for this new State also provided for the formation of a 
State from the Territories of New Mexico and Arizona in case the inhabitants 
should vote in favor of tliis union. At the election of November 6, 1906, a 
majority in New Mexico accepted the proposition, but the majority in Arizona 
was against it, and the measure failed. 

Of the proceedings against law-defying corporations during the Roosevelt 
administration, the most numerous and striking were those against the Standard 
Oil Company. These cases were instituted in a number of States, tlie company 
being widely charged with breaking the anti-trust laws. Of these, the case 
against the Indiana section of the company attracted the most attention from the 
phenomenal fine adjudged against it. Judge Kenesaw M. Landis found it guilty 
on 1,462 counts, in each of which it was liable to a fine of from $1,000 to $20,000. 
He imposed on it the maximum fine, forming the enormous total of |29,240,000. 
This was the largest fine ever imposed in the United States. Payment of it was 
resisted, and in 1908 the Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the decision. Vari- 



ROOSEVELT'S ADMINISTRATION. 579 

0U3 other suits against corporations were tried, the most notable victory of the 
government being gained over the American Tobacco Company, which was found 
guilty of being an illegal combination in restraint of trade. All these cases were 
api^ealed for a final decision in the United States Supreme Court. 

In the autumn of 1907 a severe business depression began. While not of 
the nature of a panic, it affected business very seriously, trade falling off, stocks 
greatly declining, great numbers of mechanics being thrown out of work, and 
the sum of business failures being much augmented. Several years passed before 
the effects of the depression fully passed away. 

One of the most interesting and significant events of this period, not only 
to the people of the United States, but to all the maritime powers of the world, 
was a spectacular voyage of a great fleet of American battleships around the 
earth, a feat of circumnavigation which as greatly surpassed that of Magellan 
four hundred years before as the naval development of the twentieth surpasses 
that of the sixteenth century. The enterprise was one that attracted the atten- 
tion of both hemispheres, and was regarded by many experts as daring and fool- 
hardy in the extreme, it being argued that even if the great expedition escajied 
the perils of storm, the vessels would be so racked and weather-beaten by the 
voyage as to be of little use on their return. 

These prognostications of disaster did not affect the decision of the President 
and the Naval Department, and on December 16, 1907, the great expedition set 
sail from Hampton Roads on its phenomenal voyage. It was a S2)lendid array 
that left port on that chill winter morning, consisting of sixteen of the largest 
and finest battleships then existing in the world, with an auxiliary division of 
supply shijis and torpedo boats, the crews numbering fifteen thousand men, and 
the length of the projected cruise being considerably more than the circumfer- 
ence of the earth. The first section of the journey, from Hampton Roads around 
South America to San Francisco, measured 13,772 miles. 

The expedition, after calling at several South American ports, reached San 
Francisco in late April, 1908. Here Admiral Robley D. Evans, who had com- 
manded tlie expedition to this point, was obliged by illness to transfer the com- 
mand to Admiral Charles S. Sperry. The fleet set sail again about the beginning 
of July, reaching Honolulu on the 16th. Thence it headed south for Australian 
waters, halting at Auckland, New Zealand, on August 8th, and subsequently mak- 
ing brief stops at Sydney and Melbourne, Australia. At these British ports it 
received an enthusiastic reception, our cousins across the sea giving our tars as 
flattering a welcome as if the fleet had been one of its own. 

An American port was reached again at Manila on the 2d of October, and 
the fleet returned to that port in November, after visiting Japan and China and 
meeting with a hearty reception in those Oriental lands. 



580 ROOSEVELT'S ADMINISTRATION. 

The return voyage began on December 1, Colombo being reached on the 
14th and the Suez Canal passed in early January. While the fleet was entering 
the canal word was received on board of the disastrous earthquake in Sicily. 
This gave the United States an opportunity to show its friendship for Italy and 
its warm interest in the cause of humanity. The battleships Connecticut and 
Illinois and the supply ship Culgoa were despatched at full speed to Messina, 
where they recovered the bodies of the American consul and his wife, who had 
been entombed in the ruins, and lent all possible aid to the suffering. 

Relieved of this duty by other vessels wliicli were despatched to the scene 
of disaster, the Connecticut and Illinois rejoined the fleet, and on the 22d of 
February, 1909 (Washington's birthday, the date originally set for the return), 
the fleet sailed in triumph into Hampton Roads, which it had left fourteen months 
before. All the proj^hesies of disaster and injury proved untrue ; the vessels 
reached port again very little the worse for their phenomenal voyage, and the 
world gained a new respect for the naval establishment of the United States after 
this magnificent demonstration of its capability. 

In the early years of the twentieth century the science of engineering made 
remarkable progress in the United States. One striking example of this was 
given in tlie splendid progress made on the Panama Canal, already described. 
Another had to do with the development of the art of tunneling, as specially 
shown at the city of New York. The energetic efforts to construct a tunnel 
under the Hudson river at New York in the latter part of the last century had 
proved a dismal failure. Those made in the early years of the present century 
proved a triumphant success. New methods had been learned, the failures of 
the preceding efforts had been lessons of great utility, and when the work was 
undertaken again it was done with a confidence that helped to insure success. 

The first of the New York tunnels to be successfully completed ran under 
the East river, from Manhattan to Brooklyn. This was opened on January 9, 
1908. In the following month, February 25th, the Hudson was triumphantly 
passed, the first of the tunnels between New York and New Jersey being opened. 
The following year was signalized, not only by the opening of other tunnels for 
trolley service under the Hudson, but by the completion of the great Pennsyl- 
vania Railroad tunnels under both the North and East rivers and the island of 
Manhattan, making continuous subway connection under land and water from 
New Jersey to Long Island, a feat of extraordinary daring and grand success. 
During the year 1910 all the requirements for train service were finished, and 
railroad passengers were landed at a splendid station in New York city, or trans- 
ported under the city to and from Long Island, without seeing the rivers which 
had so long been awkwai-d barriers against easy access to Manhattan Island. Brief 
mention may be made of ,two other triumphs in this field of enterprise. One of 



ROOSEVELT'S ADMINISTBATION. 581 

these was a great twin tube 2,625 feet long under the Detroit river for the use of 
the Michigan Central Railroad. These tubes, of 20-feet diameter, were lined 
with reinforced concrete 20 inches thick, and surrounded by a mass of solid con- 
crete 55 feet 8 inches wide at the top and 30 feet 1 inches deep, so that the two 
iron tubes, laid in a trench dredged in the river bed, were enclosed in a solid 
monolithic structure that seemed capable of defying even earthquake force. This 
was practically completed in 1909, as was also the remarkable Gunnison tunnel. 
This great exploit, in which a large tunnel was excavated through nearly six 
miles of mountain rock, is of striking interest as perhaps the most stupendous 
work of irrigation engineering ever undertaken. By it a great part of the waters 
of Gunnison river are directed from their natural channel, made to flow through 
the heart of a mountain, and poured out upon the sterile soil of the Uncompahgre 
Valley, there to make the desert blossom and bear fruit and convert it into a 
home for striving thousands of American farmers. 

Since 1906 there has been a remarkable movement in favor of jirohibition 
of liquor selling in the United States, comparable to that of the first half of the 
nineteenth century. This has been especially the case in the South, where the 
evils arising from the free access of the negro population to liquor-selling places 
was productive of serious results, and in the Central Western States, in which 
there developed a strong sentiment in favor of local option and tlie prohibition 
by towns and cities of the sale of intoxicating liquors. The sentiment in this 
direction was so manifest in the early years of the century that in 1904 there 
was formed a National Liquor League, which combated the growing feeling by 
every available means, but with little success, as the outcome showed. 

At this time there were three Prohibition States of old date : Maine, which 
had maintained prohibition since 1854 ; Kansas, dating from 1880, and North 
Dakota, dating from 1890. To these were added within three years six others : 
Oklahoma, 1907 ; Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, 1908, and North Carolina 
and Tennessee, 1909. The crusade in favor of local option manifested itself 
most strongly in the Central West, with the result that by the beginning of 1910 
there were 375 prohibition cities in this country of 5,000 jiopulatiou and over, 
53 of them being of over 20,000, Avhile 14 State capitols, including those in the 
nine prohibition States, were in the ranks. Such a movement in favor of the 
prevention of liquor-selling is unprecedented in its scope and success. Whether 
it is a passing manifestation of pojjular feeling, or is likely to continue, must be 
left for time to tell. 

In the Presidential election of 1908 there were seven candidates in tlie field, 
William H. Taft, Republican; William J. Bryan, Democrat; Eugene V. Debs, 
Socialist ; Eugene W. Chafin, Prohibitionist ; Thomas E. Watson, Populist ; 
August Gillhaus, Social Labor, and Thomas I. Hisgen, Independent. President 



582 ROOSEVELT'S ADMINISTRATION. 

Roosevelt had declared that he would not be a candidate for re-election, and had 
used his influence in favor of William H. Taft, Secretary of War in his cabinet, 
with the result that Taft received the nomination on the first ballot, with a large 
majority over all opponents. The Democratic party gave the nomination to 
their old standard-bearer, William J. Bryan, who had twice before been in the 
field for the Presidency. The platforms of the leading parties showed no evi- 
dence of any marked difference of opinion, since the Democrats demanded and 
the Republicans promised tariff revision, control of the trusts, conservation of 
national resources, and reforms of various kinds, while the campaign speakers 
fulminated very similar sentiments. In fact, so far as platform promises went, 
Republicans and Democrats appeared to be sailing in the same boat, and the 
result promised to rest upon the national strength of the two parties. 

The result of the election was in favor of the Republicans, William H. Taft 
and James S. Sherman being chosen for President and Vice-President by a large 
majority over William J. Bryan and John W. Kern. Though their popular 
majority was considerably less than the enormous one of Roosevelt in 1904, it 
was greater than at any ]>receding election, reaching a total of 1,482,542 votes. 
Taft's majority of the electoral vote was 159, as compared with 196 for Roosevelt 
in 1904. Of the other parties, the Socialist received much the largest vote, its 
popular vote being 482,000. It is interesting in this connection to state that in 
the 1910 electiou this party showed a great increase in strength, polling a vote 
of 750,000. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

ADNHKISTRATION OK TART. 

William H. Taft— The New Cabinet— Tariff Revision— Alaska Coal and Copper— The Ballinger Contro- 
versy — Withdnvwal of Public Lands — The Sugar Trust Case — Roosevelt in Africa and Europe — Hi^ 
New Career — A Democratic Triumph — Discovery of the North Pole — The Aeroplane — Benefac- 
tions — The Fisheries Settlement — Admission of Arizona and New Mexico. 

William Howard Taft, wlio was inaugurated as President of the United 
States on the 4th of March, 1909, was a statesman who had passed through a 
somewhat checkered career in the public service of his country. He was born in 
Cincinnati, Ohio, September 5, 1857, the son of Alphonso Taft, who liad held 
important judicial positions, had been Secretary of War in 1876, and subse- 
quently United States Minister to Austria-Hungary and Russia. 

The prospective President graduated at Yale University in 1878, waa 
admitted to the Bar of the Supreme Court of Oltio in 1880, and acted as law 
reporter to the Cincinnati Times. He progressed rapidly in his profession, and 
in March, 1887, was appointed Judge of the Superior Court of Cincinnati, being 
elected to this position in April, 1888. He resigned in 1890 to become Solicitor- 
general of the United States, under the appointment of President Harrison, and 
again resigned in 1892 to accept the position of Judge of the United States Cir- 
cuit Court for the sixth judicial district. In 1896 he became professor and 
dean of the law department of the University of Cincinnati. 

Mr. Taft's judicial career ended in March, 1900, when he entered thepublie 
service of the United States, under the appointment of President McKinley, aa 
president of the Philippine Commission. On July 4, 1901, he became the first 
civil governor of the Philippine Islands, a position which he filled with such 
skill and ability as to win high commendation. His talent as an administrator 
was fully recognized by President Roosevelt, who recalled him in 1904 to fill the 
responsible position of Secretary of War in his cabinet. While in this office he 
visited Panama, the Philijipines and Cuba in his official capacity, and succeeded 
in brinoing about harmonious conditions in these countries. He resi£;ned in 
June, 1908, having been nominated for the Presidency, and took his seat as 
executive head of the 2;overnment on the succeedina: March 4th. 

The cabinet selected by President Taft contained but two of the members 
of the Roosevelt cabinet. Elihu Root, late Secretary of State, had been elected 

(583) 



584 TAFT'S ADMINISTRATION. 

United States Senator from New York at the beginning of the year, and was 
succeeded in the secretaryship by Philander C. Knox, hvte Senator from Penn- 
sylvania. The remainder of the cabinet included Franklin McVeagh, of Illinois, 
Secretary of the Treasury ; Jacob M. Dickinson, of Washington, Secretary of 
War ; George Von L. Meyer, of Massachusetts, late Postmaster-General, Secre- 
tary of the Navy ; Richard A. Ballinger, of Washington, Secretary of the Interior; 
James Wilson, of Iowa, Secretary of Agriculture, a post he had held under Mc- 
Kinley and Roosevelt; Frank H. Hitchcock, of Massachusetts, Postmaster- 
General ; George W. Wickersham, of New York, Attorney-General, and Charles 
Nagel, of Missouri, Secretary of Commerce and Labor. 

The 1908 platform of the Republican jjarty had specially promised a revi- 
sion of the tariff as one of the leading necessities of the political situation, and 
President Taft, convinced of the urgency of this measure, called the Sixty-first 
Congress into special session as the first official act of his administration. Tariff 
revision was demanded by the country, and the subject was thoroughly debated 
in Congress, though with no very satisfactory result. A new tariff bill was 
introduced to the House by Mr. Payne, chairmanof the Ways and Means Com- 
mittee, and was passed, after prolonged debate, on April 9th. While reducing 
the rates on many articles and j^lacing others on the free list, it increased many 
of the duties on textiles, and greatly added to those on gloves and hosiery, a 
change which aroused Vigorous opposition in the Middle West. On April 12th 
a substitute measure, known as the Aldrich bill, was reported in the Senate. It 
made still fewer concessions to the demand for revision downward than the House 
bill, and led to a long and strenuous debate, in which the Democratic opposition 
was reinforced by a number of Republican Senators. These were designated as 
insurgents by the strict party members, but were widely sustained by public 
sentiment. The bill, as finally passed, was looked upon as far from keeping the 
promise of the Republican platform, and when signed by the President as the 
best that could be obtained in the existing temper of Congress, it was received by 
the people at large with great dissatisfaction. It was not a revision of the tyjie 
they had been given to expect, and President Taft was severely blametl in many 
quarters for signing a bill of which he did not fully approve. 

The new tariff contained several S]:)ecial featui-es. One of these was a system 
of maximum and minimum duties to be employed as a means of compelling 
commercial concessions on the part of foreign countries. The maximum rates 
were to be exacted from countries which discriminated against the products of 
the United States and the minimum given to those which put this country on the 
basis of all others. Provision was made for free importation of all products 
grown in the Philippine Islands, with exceptions in the case of rice, sugar and 
tobacco, in which the amount open to free entry was limited. An important 



TAFT'S ADMINISTRATION. 585 

addition to the tariff was a tax on corporations, which were required to pay a tax 
of one per cent, on all income in excess of $5,000. This, it was estimated, would 
yield a revenue of from $20,000,000 to $30,000,000 annually. 

The President had earnestly desired to have provision made for a permanent 
tariif commission, with the purpose of considering at leisure the status of the 
several manufactures of this country as a basis of adapting tariff" rates to the 
separate requirements of protection on each type of article. His purpose was to 
be able to deal with single articles, when deemed necessary, and avoid the older 
and unsatisfactory method of dealing with the tariff" as a whole in each revision. 
Congress failed to agree with him on the necessity of such a commission, and, 
while giving him the power to employ persons to gather information for his 
use in such cases, declined to grant to this tariff" board the broad powers 
demanded. Since then, however, the insistent demand of the people and the 
growth of the insurgent element in Congress have led to an expansion of the 
powers of this board, which now possesses many of the functions of the perma- 
nent tariff" commission originally asked for by the President. 

The conservation movement, originated during the Roosevelt administration, 
grew more active and insistent under tliat of President Taft, and a new demand 
developed, to the effect that the remaining natural resources of the country, aside 
from the purely agricultural, should be held by the government for the benefit 
of the people at large, and be withdrawn from individual occupation and owner- 
ship. These resources were found to be unexpectedly great. For instance, enor- 
mously rich beds of coal and valuable copper deposits had been discovered in 
Alaska, and active efforts were being made by speculative individuals to obtain 
possession of these soui'ces of wealth by fair means or foul. Also the newly- 
developed great value of the water-power sites of the (Country stirred up a specu- 
lative fever in another direction, and corporations were in the field secretly seeking 
to gain control of these vast sources of future power. Millions of acres of timber 
and other lands had been taken possession of illegally, and Secretaries Hitchcock 
and Garfield, of the Roosevelt Cabinet, had prosecuted and obtained the convic- 
tion of many perpetrators of these frauds. The most striking instance of this 
was the suit under which Senator Mitchell, of Oregon, and others connected with 
him, were convicted of fraud in gaining possession of j^ublic lands. 

Intense feeling was aroused throughout the country when it became gener- 
ally known that enormously valuable coal deposits had been discovered in Alaska, 
and that individuals and syndicates in the West were seeking to seize upon these 
vast mines of wealth. Among these the wealthy men who composed the Cun- 
ningham Syndicate of Seattle were the most active. The Guggenheim family, 
which had already obtained control of the copper mines of Alaska, was similarly 
reaching out for its coal. It was evident that some speedy action must be taken 



586 TAFT'S A DMINISTRA TION. 

if the enormously valuable mines and water-powers of the West were to be held 
for the good of the whole people instead of being absorbed for the benefit of a 
few greedy individuals. 

What particularly excited public feeling in this direction was the charge 
that Secretary of the Interior Ballinger was personally interested in aiding the 
claims of the Cunningham syndicate. This charge, made by Gifford Pinchot, 
chief forester, and seconded by L. R. Glavis, of the Land Office stafi", developed 
a controversy that spread widely through the country and was taken up actively 
by the newspapers and magazines. It led to a Congressional investigation of the 
charges against Secretary Ballinger. The decision of the committee was by no 
means satisfactory to the general public, from its partisan character, the Repub- 
lican majority of the committee exonerating Mr. Ballinger, the Democratic minor- 
ity pronouncing him guilty of complicity with the Cunninghams. President 
Taft sustained his Secretary of the Interior, and the demand that he should resign 
bore no fruit. 

As regards the real question at issue, however, the jjublicity given to it 
proved wholesome and effective. The lands involved were withdrawn from 
settlement until tlie disputed claims could be dealt with, and the trend of public 
opinion was such that there was little danger of the plans of the syndicates being 
consummated. 

During tlie Roosevelt administration 4,702,520 acres of land, said to contain 
phosphate deposits, had been withdrawn from settlement in Wyoming, Idaho 
and Utah. In 1009 there were withdrawn 603,355 acres covering all locations 
outside of the national forests known to possess water-power sites. Under an act 
of Congress for land withdrawals, ^^assed in 1910, President Taft withdrew 1,454,- 
499 acres of water-jwwer, 2,594,113 of phosphate, and 4,447,119 of petroleum 
sites, while the coal sites withdrawn by Roosevelt and Taft in the Western States 
cover the large area of 35,073,164 acres, in addition to the Alaskan coal sites. 
Where minerals underlie the surface entries of farm laud may be made, with the 
understanding that the mining rights are reserved for the general public. 

All this rej^resents a vast sum of wealth withheld for the good of the 
American jieople, which under former laws would have fallen into the hands of 
individuals, as immense quantities of coal, iron, petroleum, etc., have already 
done. Administered by the government, either directly or through leasing, they 
j^romise a huge addition to the government resources, to be utilized for the reduc- 
tion of taxation or otherwise for the public benefit. 

The prosecutions against the trusts for violation of the laws continued under 
the Taft administration, suits against a number of these corporations being insti- 
tuted. Among these was the American Sugar Refining Company, usually known 
as the Sugar Trust, which was charged not only with violation of the Sherman 




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TAFT'S ADMINISTRATION. 587 

Anti-Trust Law, but also with swindling the government directly by frauds in the 
weighing of imported sugar at the Brooklyn docks. Secret springs had been 
inserted in the scales, so as to reduce the reading of weights. The fraud was so 
flagrant that the Trust was obliged to repay the government $2,270,000 of evaded 
duties. Tliese settlements did not preclude criminal suits, which were instituted 
against a number of the persons involved, several of whom were convicted, and 
Oliver Spitzer, the dock superintendent, was sentenced to two years' imprison- 
ment. 

An interesting feature of the general history of the jDeriod had to do with 
the movements of Ex-President Roosevelt. While of a j^ersonal nature, these 
became in the end of considerable political significance. A hunter in grain, he 
eagerly awaited the end of his public duties that he might put into effect a desire 
he had long entertained of spending a season in hunting the wild game of Africa. 
On the 23d of March, less than three weeks from the close of his Presidential 
career, he set out from Oyster Bay on a long voyage to Mombasa, in British East 
Africa, a country replete with African game animals of all kinds, from the 
savage lion, rhinoceros, elephant, leopard, etc., to various species of the harm- 
less antelope, the giraffe, and other animals. 

His career in that country has nothing to do with the history of the United 
States, and it must suffice to state that he procured good specimens of all the 
large animals of that country, prepared for the use of the Smithsonian Institution, 
forming a collection of the African fauna unequalled in this or any country. The 
more significant features of his journey were during his return, when he made 
brief visits to all the leading nations of Europe except Russia, and was every- 
where received with honors usually accorded only to monarchs. It was a high 
compliment to the United States that its late President should be greeted in 
Europe as one of the most prominent and able citizens of the world, and the 
addresses made by him there regarded as of the greatest interest and imjjortance. 

Since his return his record presents two phases. In August and September, 
1909, he made a journey to the Middle West, speaking at a dozen or more points 
and everywhere arousing unlimited enthusiasm. Of the various speeches made 
by him on this occasion the most notable was that made at Osawatomie, the 
Kansas home of John Brown. It was in this address that he enunciated the 
principles of what he designated " The New Nationalism," and which has taken 
strong hold upon the public mind. He advocated stringent principles of public 
and national morality, and laid down a sort of platform of principles, covering 
the control and supervision of corporations, publicity of corporation affairs, 
graduated income and inheritance tax, use of the national resources for the benefit 
of all the people, maintenance of an efficient army and navj% revision of tlie 
tariff — one schedule at a time — elimination of special interests from politics, 



588 TAFT'S ADMINISTRATION. 

decent primary elections, publicity of campaign contributions, removal of unfaith- 
ful and incompetent public servants, and other significant ])oints. 

In tlje autumn of 1910 Roosevelt came again before the people, but with a 
very different result. The election era was at hand, a Governor was to be chosen 
for New York, and he not only controlled the choice of the Republican candi- 
date, but entered actively into the canvas, touring the State and making vigorous 
speeches in favor of his candidate and in deprecation of the Democratic candi- 
date, in which he indulged in personalities which hurt him more in public 
opinion than they helped his side of the question. The result was a serious defeat 
of the Republican party, the election of Mr. Dix, the Democratic candidate, and 
the retirement of the ex-President into a silence and secrecy which resembled 
that of "Achilles sulking in his tent." He had hurt himself seriously in public 
estimation by his ill-judged and ill-managed attempt, and lost ground which he 
might find it not easy to recover. 

The defeat of Roosevelt's candidate in New York, however, was but one 
among many. The November election of ] 910 showed the effect of a gradual 
discontent which had long been fomenting in the )>ublic mind. The insurgency 
recently manifested in Congress displayed itself equally in the country, in which 
the Democratic party won a substantial success, gaining a number of Govei-nors, 
and turning the Republican majority in the House into as substantial a Demo- 
cratic majority. A decided new deal in j^olicies had been taken, and with un- 
looked for results. 

We shall speak here of only one further result of the November election of 
interest to one-half the American j^opulation. This was the bringing of one 
more State, that of Washington, into the fold of woman-suffrage States, making 
the number five in all. Partial suffrage for women exists in several other States, 
and school suffrage in twenty-nine States. 

The year 1909 was marked by an event of great honor to the United States 
and great interest to the whole world, the final attainment of the Noi'tli Pole, so 
long and fruitlessly sought, by an American explorer. On the 2d of September 
startling news was cabled across the ocean to the effect that Dr. Frederick A. Cook 
of Brooklyn, had achieved this splendid task, and was then on his way to Den- 
mark on his return. One week later a second despatch came from the North 
stating that Commander Robert E. Peary, of the United States Navy, the veteran 
Arctic explorer, had performed the same feat, and wassimilarl} on his way home. 
As may be imagined, these quickly-repeated statements awakened an interest 
amounting to excitement throughout the whole country. Some doubts as to the 
validity of Dr. Cook's claim were expressed, but these were drowned in public 
admiration on his return, and he was received with all the honor his enthusiastic 
countrymen could bestow on \\\m. Ti wiis known that lie had been lost to sight 



TAFTS ADMINISTRATION. 589 

for a year or two in the Arctic north, and few thought of questioning the claim 
of great achievement with which he returned. 

As for Commander Peary, no one thought of questioning his claim. For 
more than twenty years he had been making repeated visits to the Arctic seas, 
mapping out the north of Greenland, making daring dashes over the polar ice, 
and gradually attaining higher latitudes. On this occasion he had set out on 
July 6, 1908, in the thoroughly equipped polar exploring steamer Roosevelt, pre- 
pared to take full advantage of his former experience and win the Pole if it was 
within human reach. This he accomplished, after many hardships and serious 
peril, on April 6, 1909, one year after the date claimed by Dr. Cook. 

The validity of Dr. Cook's claim was vigorously denied by Commander 
Peary, and doubts of it rapidly spread. His records were examined and pro- 
nounced unsatisfactory, his Eskimo companions were questioned and failed to 
support his contention, and in the end he went into self-enforced exile, not 
returning to the United States until late in 1910, when he practically acknowl- 
edged that his claim was false, and that he had not reached the Pole. This left 
the sole honor of the great discovery to Peary, and he was honored by the world 
of science as one of the leading explorers of modern times, the performer of a feat 
which had been attempted in vain through centuries of strenuous effort. 

The conquest of the Pole was not the only triumph won by Americans dur- 
ing the period under review. To it must be added tJie conquest of the air, the 
power of navigating the broad field of the atmosphere, flying as the bird flies, 
which was first achieved by two brothers, Wilbur and Orville Wright, of Ohio. 
For a century or more navigation of the atmosphere by balloons had been in 
vogue, and within recent years considerable progress had been made in the use 
of power-driven balloons, or airships, but the first to make a flight in a heavier- 
than-air machine was Wilbur Wright, on December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, 
N. C, this pioneer flight Ijeing 852 feet and the time afloat about one minute. 
Five years later, December 31, 1908, the same aviator flew 77 miles in 2 hours, 
20 minutes, 23 seconds. His brother also made various daring flights, and the 
era of aviation was fairly launched. 

The aeroplane quickly ceased to be an American machine. Several Euro- 
pean countries took it up with ardor, and since the dates mentioned much progress 
has been made on both sides of the Atlantic. In height of flight, however, 
America still bears the palm, an ascent of over 11,000 feet being made in De- 
cember, 1910. 

Another field in which America leads the world is in benefactions, gifts for 
benevolent, educational, and other purposes for the good of mankind. The busi- 
ness men of the United States have acquired wealth with unprecedented rapidity 
within recent years, and especially since the beginning of the twentieth century. 



590 TAFT'S ADMINISTRATION. 

and have distributed vast quantities of this wealth for public purposes with a 
profusion unequalled in any other age or country. While the benefactions for the 
year 1908, a year of business depression, reached a total of about $60,000,000, 
those for 1909 reached the great sum of $135,000,000. This was donated for a 
multitude of subjects, largely educational, and when added to that distributed 
from the State treasuries for the support of charitable and educational institutions, 
reaches an enormous total annually. 

Chief among these great givers have been two men of extraordinary wealth, 
Andrew Carnegie, the retired ironmaster, and John D. Rockefeller, the billion- 
aire head of the Standard Oil Company. Mr. Carnegie's gifts, very many of 
them made for the establishment of libraries, have amounted to about $180,- 
000,000, the latest, donated in December, 1910, being the large sum of $10,000,- 
000 for the development of the peace sentiment among the nations. Mr. 
Eockefeller came later into the field as a liberal giver, the sum of his donations 
being conservatively estimated at $120,000,000. This has been largely donated 
for educational purposes, and especially to the University of Chicago, which he 
has endowed to the extent of about $25,000,000, his final gift to this institution 
being made in December, 1910. 

An important international event took place in September, 1910, when there 
was settled before the International Court of Arbitration at the Hague a sourco 
of trouble which had existed between Great Britain and the United States for a 
century preceding. This was the controversy in regard to the rights of Ameri- 
can fishermen in Canadian waters. This fishing dispute had continued since tho 
close of the war of 1812. Under the treaty of 1783, at the end of the Revolu- 
tionary War, the fishing banks, coasts, bays and creeks of Canada had been 
thrown open to United States fishermen without restriction; but in 1814 tho 
British commissioners declared that the war had destroyed the earlier treaty. 
This the American commissioners denied, and the matter was left open until 
1818, wlien American fishermen were granted the right to fish outside the limit 
of three marine miles from the Canadian coast. 

Controversy on this subject continued until 1871, when by treaty the fisher- 
ies of each country were thrown open to the fishermen of the other. But as this 
right was of more value to American than to Canadian fishermen, the sum of 
$5,500,000 was awarded to Great Britain to pay the difference in value for twelve 
years, the term of the treaty. After this treaty expired the dispute was reopened, 
and on several occasions American fishing boats were seized and harshly treated by 
Canadian coast guards. This open controversy was finally submitted to the Haguq 
court for settlement, seven points being involved, of which, by the decision ren^ 
dered September 4, 1910, the United States won on five of the points. Great 
Britain on two. These two, however, were the most vital and imijortant of the seven. 



TAFTS ADMINISTRATION. 591 

The points gained by the United States referred to questions of freedom 
from exactions of duties, etc., laid by Canadian authorities, the right to employ 
foreigners on fishing boats, and to enjoy freedom of fishing in the bays and 
creeks of Newfoundland and Labrador. One gained by Great Britain defined 
the meaning of the word bay in former treaties, and decided that the limit of 
three marine miles should be measured from a line connecting the headlands 
of a bay of more than three miles' radius. The other gave Great Britain, 
Canada and Newfoundland the right to make reasonable regulations for the 
proper regulation and control of fishers and fisheries, but the United States 
was given the right to submit to arbitration any such regulation which appeared 
oppressive to American fishermen. Thus was settled, to the satisfaction of 
both parties concerned, a century-old dispute, which more than once had led 
to mutterings of war. 

Among the important acts of the first half of the Taft administration was 
the passage of an act admitting two more States to the American Union, con- 
verting from Territories into States the last remaining section of the area of 
the United States aside from its detached sections. These were the Tenitories 
of Arizona and New Mexico — a futile effort to combine which into a single 
State had been made a few years before. Congress in 1910 passed a bill for 
their separate admission, and it only remained for the adoption of their con- 
stitutions and the acceptance of these by the President for these Territories 
to be received into the brood of States under the wings of the American eagle. 
With these two added, the statehood brood will number forty-eight in all, tak- 
ing in the whole continuous area of the United States with the exception of the 
District of Columbia. 

Coronation of George V — Revolution in Mexico. 
Meanwhile events of importance were taking place elsewhere, only in- 
directh' connected with the United States, yet of much interest to the people 
of this country. Of these one was comiected with Great Britain. Edward 
VII, who had reigned as Iving since 1901, died May 6, 1910, and was succeeded 
bj^ his eldest surviving son as George V. He, with his Queen (Princess Mary 
of Teck), was crowned on June 22, 1911, with elaborate ceremonies, the occa- 
sion being one of the most splendid of the kind ever witnessed in the histor}^ 
of England. The United States was represented at the coronation by John 
Hays Hammond, a mining-engineer of world-wide reputation, while many 
of its citizens were present in the role of spectators. In the naval review that 
followed, the United States won the meed of honor, its battleship " Delaware" 
being the largest and best-armed of the warships present. 



592 TAFTS ADMIXISTRATIOX , 

More directly connected with this country were two treaties of arbitrationi 
negotiated with the British and French governments in the summer of 1911, 
one of the most important movements in the interest of peace the world had 
yet seen. These originated in a suggestion offered by President Taft, which 
found eager acceptance among the statesmen of Great Britain and France. In 
all former treaties of this character, questions concerning the honor or the 
vital interests of nations were excepted, as beyond the scope of arbitration 
But this notable treaty made no such exception, international disputes of 
whatever kind being held as open to arbitration. A Joint High Commission*]; 
of Inquiry was provided for to which subjects of controversy might be referred, 
and wliich had the power of postponing its decision for one year, thus affording! 
ample time for passion to cool and diplomacy to act. Several other nations 
showed a disposition to make similar treaties and the alliance between Great 
Britain and Japan was modified to accord with the terms of these treaties.' 
The Senate failed to confirm these treaties in its extra session of 1911, under 
the view that the Joint High Commission affected their prerogative in treaty' 
matters. But little doubt was entertained that acceptance would be eventu- 
ally reached. 

An event of equal interest was a revolutionary revolt in Mexico, beginning 
in November, 1910, and ending successfully in May, 1911. It was directed 
against the autocratic rule of President Diaz, which had made him highly 
unpopular with the people. The outbreak ended with his resignation, the 
appointment of Sehor De La Barra as provisional President, and the promi- 
nence of Francisco I. Madero, commander-in-chief of the army of insurrection, 
as a candidate for the presidency. 

The connection of the United States with this event lay in the fact that 
the principal fighting took place on the border line of the two countries and 
it was felt necessary to send an army of about 20,000 men to the border toi 
guard against possible infractions of United States interests by the insur- 
rectionary forces. Fortunately nothing happened caUing for an invasion of I 
Mexican territory by these troops. 

During the period in question an amendment to the United States con- 
stitution, giving Congress the power to impose an income-tax, was passed by 
Congress and offered to the State legislatures for consideration. By the sum- 
mer of 1911 the concurrence of only five more States was needed for its adop- 
tion. A very important measure of this period was the passage of a bill in 
July, 1911, establishing reciprocity in trade with Canada. This bill originated 
with President Taft, who warmly advocated it and called Congress into extra 
session for its due consideration. It met, however, with strong opposition, 
especially in the Senate, debate upon its provisions continuing for months and 



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TAFT'S ADMINISTRATION 593 

much division of party opinion being displayed. It was a new deal in tariff 
legislation, apparently destined to make a distinct epoch in the general tariff 
policy of the country, and vigorous prognostications of injury to the agri- 
cultural interests of the country were made. A significant feature of the 
debate was that a number of high-tariff Repubhcans joined the Democrats in 
its support, while the western insurgent senators, who were low-tariff men, 
opposed it bitterly. In Canada also, which it seemed intended to benefit, 
strong opposition was manifested, obstruction to legislation being so great 
that the premier, who sustained it, was obliged to dissolve parhament and 
submit the question to the people in a new election. 

The principal features of this drastic bill were the following: All live 
animals and products of the soil, including timber and some forms of partly 
manufactured lumber, also wood-pulp and paper and many other articles, 
were made free of duty. On manufactured articles in general the duties were 
considerably reduced, the highest duties remaining being on certain special 
articles made in Canada and this country. The passage of this biU was fol- 
lowed by that of one making a reduction of the general tariff on wools and 
woolens, which was voted for bj' the Republican insurgents who had opposed 
the reciprocity bill, this showing a peculiar division of party sentiment regard- 
ing the tariff. Other bills making tariff reductions were also passed; but all 
these bills were vetoed by President Taft, as inconsistent with the systematic 
investigation of tariff conditions then under progress. 



594 



POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES 

ACCORDING TO THE CENSUS OF 1910 



States and Territories. 



Alabama 

Alabka 

Arizona 

Arkansas 

Calitomia 

Colorado 

Connecticut 

Dakota 

Delaware 

District of Columbia . 

Florida 

Georgia 

Hawaii 

Idaho 

Illinois 

Indiana 

Indian Territory 

Iowa 

Kansas 

Kentucky 

Louisiana 

Maine 

Maryland 

Massachusetts 

Michigan 

Minnesota 

Mississippi 

Missouri 

Montana 

Nebraska 

Nevada 

New Hampshire 

New Jersey 

New Mexico 

New York 

North Carolina 

North Dakota 

Ohio 

Oklahoma 

Oregon 

Pennsylvania 

Rhode' Island 

South Carolina 

South Dakota 

Tennessee 

Texas 

Utah 

Vermont 

Virginia 

Washington 

West Virginia 

Wisconsin 

Wyoming 



Total . 



1S70. 



996,992 



9.658 
484,471 
560.247 

39.864 
537.454 

14,181 

125.015 
131,700 
187,748 
,184,109 



14,999 

,539.891 
,080,637 



,194,020 

364.399 
,321,01 1 
726,915 
626,915 
780,894 

.457.351 
,184,059 

4 • ,706 
827,922 

.721,295 

20,595 

122,993 

42,491 
318,300 
906,096 
91.874 
.382,759 
.071,361 



2,665,260 



90.923 
.521.951 
217.353 
705,606 



1,258,520 

8t8.579 

86,786 

330,551 
.225,163 

23.955 

442,014 

.054.670 

9,118 

■.558,371 



18S0. 



1.262,595 
* 

40,440 
802,525 
864,694 

194,327 
622,700 

135.177 
146,608 

177.624 

269,493 

1,542,180 



32,610 
3,077,871 
1,978,301 



1,624,615 
996,096 

1,648,690 
939.946 
648,936 

934,943 
1,783,085 

1.636,937 
780,773 

1. 131. 597 
2,168,380 

39.159 

452.402 

62,266 

346,991 
1,131,1 16 

119.565 
5,082,871 

1.399.750 



3,198,062 



174,768 

4,282,891 

276.531 

995.577 



1.542,359 

1. 591. 749 

143.963 

332,286 

1,512.565 

75.116 

618,457 

1.315.497 
20,789 

50,155,783 



1S90. 



1.513,017 

59,620 

1,128,179 

1,208,130 

419,198 

746,258 



168,493 

230,392 
391,422 

1,837,353 



84.385 
3.826,351 
2,192,404 
* 

1,911,896 
1,427,096 
1.858,635 
1.118,587 
661,086 
1,042,390 

2,238,943 
2,093,889 
1,301,826 
1,289,600 
2,679,184 

132,159 
1,058,910 

45,761 

376,530 

1,444,933 

153,593 

5,997,853 

1,617,947 

182,719 

3,672,316 

61,834 

313,767 

5,258,014 

345,506 

1,151,149 

328,808 

1,767,518 

2.235.523 
207,905 
332,422 

1,655,980 
349,390 
762,704 

1,686,880 
60,705 

62,622,250 



1900. 



1,828,697 

63,592 
122,931 

1,311.564 

1.485,053 

539.700 

908,420 



184,735 

278,718 

528,542 

2,216,331 

154,001 

161,772 

4,821,550 

2,516,462 

392,060 

2,231,853 

1,470,495 

2,147.174 

1,381,625 

694,466 

1,188,044 

2,805,34b 

2,420,982 

1,751,394 

1,551,270 

3,106,665 

243,329 
1,066,300 

42,335 
411,588 

1,883,669 
195,310 

7,268,894 

1,893,810 
319,146 

4,157.545 
398,331 
413,536 

6,302,1 15 
428,556 

1.340,316 
401,570 

2,020,616 

3,048,710 
276,749 
343.641 

1,854,184 
518,103 
958,800 

2,069,042 
92.531 

t76,303.387 



1910. 



2.138,093 
64.356 

204.354 
1.574,449 
2.377.549 

799,024 

1,114,756- 



202,322 
33 ',069 

752,619 

2,609,121 

• 91,909 

325,594 
5,638,591 
2,700,876 



2,224,771 
1,690,949 
2,289,905 
1,656,388 

742,371 
1,294,450 

3,366,416 
2,810,173 
2,075,708 
1. 797. 114 
3.293.335 

376,053 

1,192,2 14 

81.875 

430,572 
2,537.167 

327.396 
9.113. 614 
2,206,287 

577.056 
4,767,121 

1. 657. 155 

672,765 

7,665,1 II 

542,674 

1,51 5,400 

583,888 

2,184,789 

3,896,542 

373.351 

355.956 

2,06 1 ,612 

1,141,990 

1,22 1,119 

2,333.860 

145.965 

§93,402,151 



Population for 1910 as above, includes the United States and specified dependencies (Alaska, 
Hawaii, Porto Rico, military and naval persons abroad), but not other possessions. Taking the 
population of Philippine Islands by census of 1903, at 7,635,426, and adding estimates for the 
islands of Guam and Samoa and Canal Zone, makes the total population of the United States 
and possessions about 101,100,000. 

* The inhabitants of Alaska and the Indian Territory are not included in the enumeration 
of 1S90. The population of Alaska in 1890 was 30,329; of the Indian Territory, 179,321. Total 
population of the United States in 1890, 62,831,900. The inhabitants of Alaska were not included 
in the enumeration of 1880. The population was 33,426. Total population of the United States 
in 1880, 50,189,209. 

t Includes 91,219 persons in the military and naval service of the United States. 

§ Includes 55,608 persons in military ami naval service, and also the population of Porto Rico 



The Hundred Largest Cities in the United States According to the Census of 1910 



Cities. 



New York, N.Y .... 

Chicago, 111 

Philadelphia, Pa ... . 

St. Louis, Mo 

Boston, Mass 

Cleveland, O 

Baltimore, Md 

Pittsburgh, Pa 

Detroit, Mich 

Buffalo, N. Y 

San Francisco, Cal . . 
Milwaukee, Wis ... 

Cincinnati, O 

Newark, N. J 

New Orleans, La . . . 
Washington, D. C . . 
Los Angeles, Cal . . . . 
Minneapolis, Minn . . 
Jersey City, N.J... 
Kansas City, Mo. . . 

Seattle, Wash 

Indianapolis, Ind . . . 
Providence, R. I . . . 

Louisville, Ky 

Rochester, N. Y 

St. Paul, Minn 

Denver, Col 

Portland, Ore 

Columbus, O 

Toledo, O 

Atlanta, Ga 

Oakland, Cal 

Worcester, Mass . . . . 

Syracuse, N. Y 

New Haven, Conn . . 
Birmingham, Ala . . . 

Memphis, Tenn 

Scranton, Pa 

Richmond, Va 

Paterson, N.J 

Omaha, Neb 

Fall River, Mass 

Dayton, O 

Grand Rapids, Mich 
Nashville, Tenn .... 

Lowell, Mass 

Cambridge, Mass . . . 

Spokane, Wash 

Bridgeport, Conn . . . 
Albany, N. Y 



1910. 



.,766,883 
,185,283 
,549.008 
687,029 

670,585 
560,663 

558,485 
533,905 
465,766 

423,715 
416,912 

373-857 
364,463 
347.469 

339,07s 
331,069 
319,198 
301,408 
267,779 
248,381 
=37,194 
233,650 
224,326 
223,928 
218,149 
214,744 

213.381 
207,214 
181,548 
168,497 
154.839 
150,174 
145,986 

137,249 
133,605 
132,685 
'31.105 
129,867 
127,628 
125,600 
124,096 
119.295 
ii<?.577 
112,571 
110,364 
106,294 
104,839 
104,402 
102,054 
100,253 



1900. 



3.437.2°2 
1,698,575 
1.293,697 
575,238 
560,892 
381,768 
508,957 
45i.5i2t 
285,704 
352,387 
342,782 

285,315 
325,902 
246,070 
287,104 
278,718 
102,479 
202,718 
206,433 
163,752 
80,671 
169,164 
175,597 
204,731 
162,608 
163,065 

133,859 

90,426 

125,560 

131,822 

89,872 

66,960 

118,421 

108,374 

108,027 

38,415 

102,320 

102,026 

85,050 

105,171 

102,555 

104,863 

85,333 

87,565 

80,865 

94,969 

91,886 

36,848 

70,996 

94,151 



.507.414^^ 
,099,850 
,046,964 
451,770 
448,477 
261,353 
434,439 
343,904t 
205,876 
255,664 
298,997 
204,468 
296,908 
181,830 
242,039 
230,392 
50,395 
164,738 
166,003 
132,716 
42,837 
105,436 
132,146 
161,129 
133.896 
133,156 
106,713 
46,385 
88,150 
81,434 

65,533 
48,682 

84,655 
88,143 
81,298 
26,178 
64,495 
75,215 
81,388 

78,347 
140,452 

74,398 
61,220 
60 , 2 7 8 
76,168 
77,696 
70,028 
19,922 
48,866 
94,923 



Percentage of Increase. 



1900 to 
1910. 



38.7 
28.7 
19.7 
19.4 

19. 6 
46.9 

9-7 
18.2 
63,0 

20 . 2 
21.6 
31 o 
11. 8 
41.2 
18.1 
18.8 

211,5 
48.7 
29.7 

51-7 

194.0 

38.1 

27.8 

9-4 

34-2 

31-7 

59-4 

129.2 

44.6 

27.8 

72-3 
124. 

23- 
26. 

23- 
245- 
28. 
27. 
50. 
19. 



13.8 
36.6 
28.6 

36.5 
11.9 
14. I 
183-3 
43-7 
65.0 



1890 to 
1900. 



371 
54-4 
23.6 

27-3 
25-1 
46. I 
17.2 

3'-3 
38.8 
37-8 
14. 6 

39-5 
9.S 

35-3 
18.6 



103.4 
231 
26.6 

23-4 
88.3 
60.4 

32.9 

27 



25- 

94- 

42. 

61 .9 

371 

37-5 

39-9 

23.0 

32.9 
46.7 
58.6 
35-6 

4-5 
34-2 
27. oj 
40.9 



39- 
45- 
6. 
22 , 
31 
85 
45 



I 



, 2 
,0 

■ 3 
St 



* Estimated population in 1890 of the area of present New York. The population of New 
York as it existed in 1890 was 1,515,301. 

t Includes population of Allegheny, which was, in 1900, 129,896, and In 1S90, 105,287. 
t Decrease. 

595 



The Hundred Largest Cities in the United States According to the Census of 1910 



Cities. 



Hartford, Conn 

Trenton, N. J 

New Bedford, Mass.. 
San Antonio, Tex . . . . 

Reading, Pa 

Camden, N. J 

Salt Lake City, Utah 

Dallas, Tex 

Lynn, Mass 

Springfield, Mass. .. . 
Wilmington, Del. . . . 

Des Moines, la 

Lawrence, Mass 

Tacoma, Wash 

Kansas City, Kan . . . 

Yonkers, N. Y 

Youngstown, O 

Houston, Tex 

Duluth, Minn 

St. Joseph, Mo 

Somerville, Mass. . . . 

Troy, NY 

Utica, N. Y 

EUzabeth, N. J 

Fort Worth, Tex .... 
Waterbury, Conn . . . . 
Schenectady, N. Y... 

Hoboken, N.J 

Manchester, N. H. . . 

Evansville, Ind 

Akron , O 

Norfolk, Va 

Wilkes-Barre, Pa ... . 

Peoria, 111 

Erie, Pa 

Savannah, Ga 

Oklahoma City, Okla 

Harrisburg, Pa 

Fort Wayne, Ind 

Charleston, S. C 

Portland, Me 

East St. Louis, 111 . . . 
Terre Haute, Ind . . . . 

Holyoke, Mass 

Jacksonville, Fla .... 

Brockton, Mass 

Bayonne, N. J 

Johnstown, Pa 

Passaic, N. J 

South Bend, Ind .... 



1910. 



96, 
96, 
96, 
96, 
94, 
92, 
92, 
89, 
88 

87 
86 

85 
83 
82, 

79 
79 
7S 
7S 
77 
77 
7f> 
74 
73 
73 
73 
72 
7° 
70 
69 
6g 
67 
67: 
66 
66 

65 
64 
64 

63 
58 
58 
58 
58 
57 
57 
56 
55 
55 
54 
53 



915 
81S 
652 

614 
071 
538 

777 
104 

336 
926 

.411 
,36s 
,892 
-743 
331 
,803 
,066 
,800 
,466 
i403 
1 = 36 
,813 
.419 
.409 
,312 
,141 
,826 
324 
063 
647 
,067 
452 
'°5 
95° 
525 
,064 
205 
186 
933 
833 
571 
547 
157 
730 
699 
,878 

.545 
482 

773 
684 



1900. 



79.850 
73.3°7 
62,442 

53,321 
78,961 

75.935 
53,531 
42,638 

68,513 
62,059 
76,508 
62,139 
62,559 
37.714 
51.418 

47.931 
44,885 
44,633 

52,969 
102,979 

61,643 
60,651 

56,383 
52,130 
26,688 

45.859 
31.682 

59.364 
56,987 
59.007 
42,728 
46,624 
51.721 
56,100 

52.733 
54,244 
10,037 
50,167 

45.115 
55.807 
50,145 
29.655 
36,673 
45.712 
28,429 
40,063 
32.722 
35.936 
27.777 
35,999 



1890. 



53.230 
57.45S 
40,733 
37.673 
58,661 

58,313 
44,843 
38,067 

55,727 
44,179 
61,431 
50,093 
44,654 
36,006 
38,316 
32,033 

33,220 

27.557 
33.115 
52,324 
40,152 
60,956 
44,007 
37.764 
23.076 
28,646 
19,902 

43.648 

44,126 
50,756 

27,601 

34,871 
37.718 

41,024 
40,634 
43,189 
4,151 
39,385 
35.393 

54.955 
36,425 
15.169 
30,217 

35.637 
17.201 

27.294 
19.033 
2 1,805 
13.028 
21,819 



Percentage of Increase. 



1 900 to 
1910. 



23 9 
32. I 
54.8 
81.2 
21.7 
24-5 
73 ■ 3 
1 16.0 

30 4 
43-3 
14-3 
390 

37 3 
122.0 
60 . I 
66.5 
76. 2 
76.6 

48. I 
24 
25 
26 
32 
40.8 

174.7 
59-5 

129.9 
18.5 
22 . 9 
18.0 
61 .6 
44-7 
297 
19 -3 
26. 2 
19.9 

539-7 
27.9 

41 

5 

16 

97 
52 
26.3 
103.0 
42 . o 
69.7 

54-4 
97.2 

49. I 



1890 to 
1900. 



50. 

27- 

53- 

41 • 

34. 

30.2 

19.4 

12.0 

22.9 

40. 5 

24 -5 
24.0 
40 . I 

4-7 
34- 2 
49.6 

35-1 
62 .0 
60 .0 
96.8 
53 -S 
o-S 
28.1 
38.0 

15-7 
60 . I 
59-2 
36.0 
29. I 

16.3 
54.8 

33-7 
37-1 
367 
29.8 
25.6 
141 .8 
27.4 

27 -5 
I .6 

37-7 



95- 
21 . 

28. 

65- 
46.8 
71.9 
64.8 
113-2 
65.0 



* Decrease. 



W 68 




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